Abortion Hurts Women

In order for it to be true that abortion is empowering to women, then it must not hurt women. Let’s see what science — and women themselves — have to say.

What Does Science Say?

The most comprehensive and largest study of the mental health risks associated with abortion was published on September 1, 2011, in the British Journal of Psychiatry. This meta-analysis examined 22 studies published between 1995 and 2009, involving 877,181 women — 163,831 of whom had abortions.

Here’s what the study found:

• Women who have had an abortion have an 81% higher risk of subsequent mental health problems compared to women who have not had an abortion.

• Women who aborted have a 138% higher risk of mental health problems compared to women who have given birth.

• Women who aborted have a 55% higher risk of mental health problems compared to women with an unplanned pregnancy who gave birth.

• Women with a history of abortion have higher rates of:

  • Anxiety (+34%)

  • Depression (+37%)

  • Alcohol misuse (+110%)

  • Marijuana use (+230%)

  • Suicidal behavior (+155%)

Dr. Coleman’s meta-analysis excluded studies that were biased or weak and only included those published in peer-reviewed journals, with at least 100 participants, and controlling for prior mental health or abuse history.

Further Studies Confirm the Risks

• In 2016, a study titled Abortion, Substance Abuse, and Mental Health in Early Adulthood was published in SAGE Open Medicine. Conducted by Dr. D. Paul Sullins of the Catholic University of America, the research showed that abortion was consistently associated with increased risks of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance abuse, even after adjusting for variables like family background and prior mental health.

• According to the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute, 58 out of 74 (78%) research studies since 1957 have shown an increased risk of breast cancer following induced abortion.

  • A 2014 meta-analysis in China found:

    • 44% increased risk after one abortion

    • 76% after two

    • 89% after three

  • A 2013 study in Bangladesh found women were over 20 times more likely to get breast cancer if they had a history of abortion.

• A Canadian study reported that 25% of post-abortive women visited a psychiatrist over a five-year period — compared to just 3% of women who did not have abortions.

• In Finland, a long-term study found that women who had abortions had a suicide rate three times higher than the national average — and six times higher than women who gave birth.

With 1–1.6 million abortions occurring every year in the U.S., these percentages become deeply personal. Using the Canadian numbers, 25% of 1.3 million women amounts to 325,000 women suffering — just in one year.

What Have Post-Abortive Women Told Us?

For 48 years, Illinois Right to Life has offered counseling and support for women who’ve had abortions. What they’ve told us matches what the science shows.

• One woman, pregnant from rape, told us:

  “I know this sounds terrible. I’d rather be raped again than to ever have to go through with another abortion.”

• Others describe turning to drugs, alcohol, and suicidal attempts to numb the pain.

• Some stayed in abusive relationships, thinking they deserved the pain.

• One woman avoids hand dryers because the sound triggers her — it’s the same as the machine used during her abortion.

• Others are haunted by songs, scents, or waiting rooms that bring back vivid, traumatic memories.

• Some women can’t bond with their children afterward. Others struggle with infertility and feel they’re being punished.

We’ve dried their tears — in phone calls, after talks, in churches, at community events. The pain is real, and it’s devastating.

What Have Women Told the Nation’s Largest Post-Abortive Healing Ministry?

The Catholic Church runs the largest post-abortion healing ministry in the U.S. — Project Rachel. It’s open to all — Catholic, Protestant, or non-religious — and connects women and men with counselors, psychologists, addiction specialists, and support groups.

From Project Rachel:

“The staff, priests, and counselors… are well aware of the mental health problems women experience following an abortion. The national website receives countless letters from women and men expressing profound anguish, sometimes for decades after an abortion.”

In Chicago alone, the Archdiocese reports receiving five calls a day from people seeking healing.

The Physical Risks of Abortion

So what is abortion? It's an invasive medical procedure that involves surgically or chemically ending the life of a developing human being. Even Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, admits that serious complications can occur — some even fatal.

Risks include:

• Allergic reactions

• Blood clots in the uterus

• Incomplete abortion

• Infection

• Injury to cervix or organs

• Ectopic pregnancy

• Hemorrhaging

• Failure to end pregnancy

Medical abortion (the abortion pill) is often marketed as safe and “easier” than surgical abortion. But a recent study in the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology showed that women who take the abortion pill face a four-fold higher risk for complications.

And these are just the short-term dangers.

Long-Term Health Consequences

A study published in the Southern Medical Journal using California Medicaid records of 173,279 women found:

“Compared with women who delivered, those who aborted had a significantly higher age-adjusted risk of death from all causes (1.62), from suicide (2.54), and from accidents (1.82)... This may be explained by self-destructive tendencies, depression, and other unhealthy behavior aggravated by the abortion experience.”

What Does It All Mean?

We cannot and will not say that all women who have abortions will experience this pain. That would be scientifically incorrect and unfair.

But what we can say, backed by decades of experience and rigorous research, is this:

Abortion causes profound pain to an extremely large number of women.
Women who choose life face dramatically lower risks for breast cancer, mental health disorders, addiction, and more.

We don’t advance women’s rights by hurting women.
We don’t empower women by lying to them.

That’s not feminism. That’s torture.

More Evidence of Abortion’s Harm

What is abortion? The very nature of it — invasive, violent, and traumatic — reveals its potential for deep, lasting harm.

We owe it to women to speak the truth. Not in judgment. But in compassion — and love.