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The notion that women who have an abortion are at higher risk of suicide is used as a rationale to restrict women’s access to abortion. Currently, eight states require that women be counseled on the negative emotional responses to abortion (Guttmacher Institute, 2017). In Texas, as part of the law mandating pre-abortion counseling, women are given a booklet warning them that they are at increased risk of becoming suicidal if they choose abortion (Texas DSHS, 2017).
This study—which improves on many of the methodological shortcomings of the existing literature by controlling for previous history of abuse, intimate partner violence, and mental health issues, using an appropriate comparison group (women denied an abortion), and following women for five years—found that women who had abortions were at no higher risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts than women denied abortions. Suicidal ideation rates are comparable or somewhat lower to a general population of adult women (CDC, 2011). Policies requiring women to be warned that they are at increased risk of becoming suicidal if they choose abortion are not evidence based.