The Link Between Abortion and Suicide Risk: Finding Hope and Healing
Are women who have experienced abortion at higher risk for suicide? Can anything be done to experience recovery and restoration from that experience? The answers to both of these questions are yes. Women can find help now, as April is Abortion Recovery Awareness Month.
A new study considered suicide risks associated with pregnancy outcomes. According to a report in The Christian Post, women who had abortions or experienced natural pregnancy loss were twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to women who successfully delivered their babies. These higher rates of suicide are traced in the study “Suicide risks associated with pregnancy outcomes: a national cross-sectional survey of American females 41-45 years of age” from the collaborative effort of the Elliot Institute and the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
The study was a topic-blind study which surveyed 2,829 American women between the ages of 41 and 45 about their reproductive histories and any past suicide attempts. Scholars and researchers who designed the study consulted with experts in abortion and mental-health research in preparing a questionnaire on the prevalence and effects of abortions that conflict with women’s own maternal preferences and moral beliefs.
The participants who consented to take part in the survey understood that “sensitive info” may be addressed, though opportunities to complete surveys did not disclose the subject or content of the surveys. Respondents were free to cease participation in any given survey at any time, making their participation clearly and completely voluntary and deliberate. To a degree, the results reveal that participants wanted to tell their stories to researchers, even though they were “completely in the dark as to what the purpose of the research was.” Concurrently, the researchers learned that while “all forms of pregnancy loss may involve feelings of loss and grief, case reports indicated that at least a subset of women who have had abortions reported feelings of guilt and self-hatred,” which tended to fuel “their subsequent suicidal thoughts and behaviors.”
Published in the January 2025 issue of the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, these groundbreaking results reveal that women who have experienced pregnancy loss are twice as likely to attempt suicide as women who successfully carried their babies to full term. Most compelling was the fact that women who ended their pregnancies through abortion, especially when the abortion was contrary to the values and preferences of the pregnant women, experienced higher rates of suicide attempts, suicidal thoughts, and self-destructive behaviors. The study found:
A history of attempted suicide was highest among women who have undergone abortions. Over one-third (35%) of the post-abortive women surveyed reported that they had attempted suicide. Women who only had successful deliveries of their children had the lowest suicide attempt rate at 13%.
Furthermore, women who were coerced into having abortions had the highest suicide-attempt rates: A shocking 46% tried to end their own lives. The study concluded, “Aborting women, especially those who underwent coerced or unwanted abortions, were significantly more likely to say their pregnancy outcomes directly contributed to suicidal thoughts and behaviors compared to women in all other groups.” Abortion was the cause of harm to these women, creating a very real higher risk of suicide. This news is disturbing and tragic.
The study concluded, “These findings should be used to improve both pre-abortion screening and counseling and post-abortion care.” So, can anything be done to experience recovery and restoration from the abortion experience? While this study covered the experiences of less than 3,000 women, millions of women in America have been harmed by abortion, severely damaged by the “devastating psychological consequences” of abortion as stated in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). In Gonzales v. Carhart (2007) the Supreme Court of the United States noted: “(S)ome women come to regret aborting the infant life they once created and sustained. … Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision, fraught with emotional consequence.” The Court also noted that “severe depression and loss of esteem can follow” an abortion.
Something can be done to bring help, healing, and restoration to women who have experienced abortion, and it can be done right now. Again, April is Abortion Recovery Awareness Month. Supported by Operation Outcry and The Justice Foundation, this 30-day campaign offers anyone an opportunity to promote abortion-recovery programs across America, in churches, schools, workplace-wellness centers, campuses, and communities. A quick Internet search of the term “April is Abortion Recovery Awareness Month” reveals at least 10 organizations already working toward abortion recovery for women, men, and families. The Abortion Recovery International Network (ARIN) is ready to serve you or anyone you may know who can benefit from abortion recovery services by helping to find safe, healthy alternatives to abortion.
Women who have lost a pregnancy through abortion are at twice the risk for suicide as women who have not experienced abortion. Help someone you know who has been victimized by abortion to find recovery and restoration today, this month. Yes, there is help if you or your loved one needs it.
Lynne Marie Kohm, copyright April 3, 2025
