Study: Rates of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder increased 61% after abortion

From LifeSite.net:

According to a study published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, women who have experienced abortion have high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which follow findings from earlier studies linking abortion and PTSD.

The study of 155 women in South Africa who had abortions looked at symptoms before abortion and at one month and three months after abortion. Almost one-fifth of the women had symptoms that met the criteria for PTSD, leading the authors to note that "high rates of PTSD characterize women who have undergone voluntary pregnancy termination." Further, at three months after the abortions, the number of women with PTSD had increased by 61 percent compared to before the abortion.

The researchers compared levels of pain and psychological outcomes among women who had received a local anesthetic versus those who had received IV sedation. Women who had received a local anesthetic had higher levels of pain before and during abortion and were more likely to experience PTSD symptoms, but researchers found no difference in symptoms over a longer period of time.

In other words, what the study found was that using one form of pain management over the other did not effect rates of psychological trauma experienced by women after abortion. These findings lend credence to the theory that abortion itself is the cause of trauma for women, not the amount of physical pain they experience.

This study is not the first to link abortion with increased levels of PTSD. In a 2004 study published in the Medical Science Monitor, 65 percent of American women who had undergone abortions reported symptoms of PTSD, which they attributed to their abortions, and slightly over 14 percent reported all the symptoms necessary for a clinical diagnosis of PTSD. . .

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