Last month, the Journal of Psychiatric Research published a study by researchers with the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre, University of Sherbrooke and McGill University, titled “Induced abortion and implications for long-term mental health: a cohort study of 1.2 million pregnancies.”
Researchers oversaw a retrospective cohort study of 28,721 induced abortions and approximately 1.22 million births at hospitals in Quebec, Canada, between 2006 and 2022.
They followed up with women after their pregnancies to identify any mental health-related hospitalizations to see if there was a link between induced abortion and hospitalization.
According to the study, “abortion is associated with an increased risk of mental health-related hospitalization in the long term, but the association weakens with time.”
“Rates of mental health-related hospitalization were higher following induced abortions than other pregnancies,” noted the report, adding that women who had abortions experienced higher rates of “substance use disorders” and “suicide attempts” when “compared with other pregnancies.”