According to a new study, most women who have had an abortion report more than one pre-existing risk factor associated with moderate-to-severe psychosocial harm.
Of the U.S. women who responded, about 82% would have been categorized as at-risk for negative emotional reactions during the time in which they would have been deciding on whether to get an abortion.
Pre-existing risk factors
Those women showed one or more of the following pre-existing risk factors:
- Emotional attachment to the pregnancy
- Abortion conflicted with moral beliefs
- Abortion conflicted with maternal desires
- Belief that greater support would have led to keeping pregnancy
- Belief that greater financial security would have led to keeping pregnancy
- Personal preference where the abortion contradicted or aligned with the woman’s desire
- Perception as to whether the pregnancy is human life
- And perceived pressures (a composite of five types of pressures) to have an abortion
The peer-reviewed study published by Issues in Law & Medicine discovered that women with higher risk scores were significantly associated with larger levels of negative outcomes associated with their abortions.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Hannah Davis and originally published by Decision Magazine.
