Finnish Study Links Abortion to Suicide Risk

                                                                                                                       Vol. X, No. 2, February 1997

A study published in the British Medical Journal reported that women who have had abortions are more likely to commit suicide, according to a Reuters news report. Finland's National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health researchers said their findings were important to officials who want to prevent suicides. They used national records to check the rate of suicides up to one year after the end of a pregnancy, whether it ended in birth, miscarriage, or abortion. “The suicide rate after an abortion was three times the general suicide rate and six times that associated with birth," they wrote.

They noted that women are frequently depressed after having a baby, but this rarely translated into suicide. “Short-term postnatal 'blues' are experienced by 45 to 70 percent of women," they said. "The initial stress effect of having a child, however, is transitional, and overall having a child has positive effects on women's health."

[Reprinted from The Lifesaver, Virginia Society for Human Life, January 1997.]