Mental Health Symptoms When Abortion Access Is Restricted

The idea that abortion leads to adverse psychological outcomes has been the basis for legislation mandating counseling before obtaining an abortion and other policies to restrict access to abortion.

This study assesses changes in online telemedicine requests to self-manage abortions with medications before vs after the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade .

Similar to other reviews within the last 4 years, a thorough review by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, published in December 2011, found that compared to delivery of an unintended pregnancy, abortion does not increase women's risk of mental health problems. In contrast, a meta-analysis published in September 2011 concluded that abortion increases women's risk of mental health problems by 81% and that 10% of mental health problems are attributable to abortions. Like others, we strongly question the quality of this meta-analysis and its conclusions. Here we detail seven errors of this meta-analysis and three significant shortcomings of the included studies because policy, practice and the public have been misinformed. These errors and shortcomings render the meta-analysis' conclusions invalid. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.