Study: Women who abort babies more likely to attempt suicide
Women who have abortions are more likely to attempt suicide, according to a recent study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
Researchers surveyed nearly 2,000 women ages 41-45 and found that 34.7% of those who had abortions had attempted suicide, compared to 17.1% who had never been pregnant and 13.4% who had delivered live births.
Of those who had abortions and attempted suicide, nearly half (46.2%) said they were coerced into aborting their child against their own wishes and values. Almost a third (29.5%) said they wanted the abortion and 33.3% said they did not want the abortion but did not express having been coerced.
The research aligns with other studies that have found higher rates of suicidality among women who have had abortions. A Finnish study, for example, found that the annual rate of suicide for aborting women is 34.7 out of 100,000, compared with 11.3 for females who had not been pregnant.
Findings pointing to higher suicidality among women who have abortions are often dismissed by abortion advocates who claim the suicides are due to pre-existing psychiatric disorders. But the new study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute disputes that claim with the respondents’ own acknowledgements that their abortions were contributing factors to their suicide attempts.
“The hypothesis that higher rates of suicide following abortion can be entirely explained by preexisting mental health problems is inconsistent with women’s own self-assessments of the contributing factors in their suicidal or self-destructive behaviors,” the researchers wrote. “Women who experience pregnancy losses, either induced or natural, are at higher risk of suicidal and self-destructive thoughts and behaviors. Exposure to abortion, especially when the abortion is contrary to the values and preferences of the pregnant women, may contribute to higher rates of suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts, and self-destructive behaviors. These findings should be used to improve both pre-abortion screening and counseling and post-abortion care.”
Will the Left support abortion control?
These findings raise questions about the Left’s aggressive support for abortion given that its support for medically mutilating children is entirely based on concerns about suicidality.
Activists who advocate subjecting children to “gender-affirming care” like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgeries—or what ethical doctors refer to as medical mutilation for their tendency to cause permanent sterility—argue that gender dysphoric youth who do not receive such procedures have a higher risk of suicide. Gender activists often pressure parents into approving medical mutilation by asking them: “Would you rather have a living son or a dead daughter?”
That argument has been debunked several times. The Cass Review, the largest report on medical mutilation to date, found no evidence to suggest higher suicidality among gender dysphoric minors. In fact, up to 98% of children diagnosed with gender dysphoria outgrow the condition, obviating the need for permanent, life-altering procedures.
But this professed concern about suicide, if applied to women who have abortions, should galvanize the Left to support strict abortion controls.
