Grief more common than relief following abortion, new study finds

Image credit: Kyle Broad via UnSplash

A recent study has discovered that most women report more grief and regret following an abortion, despite claims from the abortion industry that relief is the most common emotion experienced following an abortion.

The new study, conducted by David Reardon and published earlier this year, sought to assess the intensity of emotional responses following an abortion after it was claimed that 95% of women feel relief following an abortion. 

Amongst the sample of women taking part in the study, 29.9% of women reported their abortion as “wanted”, whereas the remainder of women either described their abortion as accepted but inconsistent with their values and preferences (35.5%), unwanted (22%) or coerced (12.7%).

Reardon discovered that relief was a more prominent emotion described by those who described their abortion as “wanted”. However, in contrast to those who described their abortion as “inconsistent” “unwanted” or “coerced”, rarely reported relief, and instead reported higher levels of grief, depression, anxiety, guilt, shame and regret. Those who felt coerced into their abortions rated their negative emotions most severely, and also reported that they continued to experience intense negative feelings over their abortions twenty years after.                                                                    

These results contradict the claim from Planned Parenthood that 95% of women say they mostly feel relief after an abortion. However, this claim is based on two studies from 1993 and 2020, both of which have limitations in regards to their recruitment method, which was done at abortion clinics, and both due to their high drop-out rate, leading to only 37.6% and 17% taking part respectively.

“This is a reflection of self-censure bias,” Reardon said. “At the time they are being recruited at an abortion clinic, the women who anticipate or are experiencing the most negative feelings are the ones most likely to decline or drop out.  They don’t want to think about their abortions, much less discuss them with a stranger.  That’s why these abortion clinic studies have participation rates as low as only 30%. They mainly include only those women who are most confident that they made the right decision and who have the fewest negative feelings.”

In order to avoid the biases as evident in the previous studies, Reardon conducted a random national survey amongst 1,925 women 41 to 45 years of age, where the topic of the survey was not disclosed and a “stigma reduction” was done. In total, 409 (21.2%) of women who took part in the survey reported a history with an abortion.

Reardon has said that the results of his study should be made aware to women contemplation abortion and should be reflected in abortion advertisements and consent procedures.

“Women should be told that if they feel any pressure to abort, or have maternal or moral conflicts with it, negative feelings are more likely than relief.  And in many cases, these negative reactions can last for decades.  Anything less is deceit,” he said.

He added that “The fact that researchers who work for abortion advocacy groups have not found any flaws in our prior studies, based on this same data set, underscores the accuracy of these findings,” said Reardon. “Lacking any evidence to dispute our results, their only response has been to pretend that our findings don’t exist, hoping the media will do the same.”

Sandra Parda of the Life Institute commented, saying: “It’s about time society woke up and faced the reality of abortion. It is evident that a consequence of abortion is that it harms women both physically and mentally.”

She added that it is “worrying that the abortion industry and the media who claim to be advocates for women are ignoring a piece of research that questions the narrative that abortion is not harmful to women, and instead relies on some biased research.  

“This only makes it clear they have no care for women. Instead, all they care about is pushing abortion at a woman’s expense. This does no favours for women and we need to do better.”