Washington, DC:

Women who have had abortions frequently experience post-abortion depression all over the world, according to a recent study by Ethiopian medical experts published in BMC Psychiatry. The work was published in an open-access, peer-reviewed publication. The researchers Kirubel Dagnaw Tegegne and Natnael Atnafu Gebeyehu reviewed 15 publications with a total of 18,207 research participants based on 657 articles for their study, “Global prevalence of post-abortion depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.”

While 37.5% of Asian women expressed depression following an abortion, 43.1% of women in the World Health Organization's Eastern Mediterranean region said the same. The World Bank's definition of wealth was employed in the study that found lower-middle-income countries had the highest frequency of post-abortion grief. Meanwhile, another study found that the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale showed the highest depression prevalence.

The paper claims that post-abortion depression is a global issue that depends on a variety of factors, including research methodologies, diagnostic tools, geography, and socioeconomic status. Following that, the research advised that healthcare practitioners focus on counseling and emotional support for women who have had abortions.

Meanwhile, the National Right to Life Committee's head of education and research, Randall O'Bannon, criticized the report for merging data on induced abortion with data on spontaneous abortion or miscarriage. He contended that the study's argument that any sort of pregnancy loss is painful would not persuade skeptics who reject the existence or significance of post-abortion depression.

Studies concentrating on abortion have shown increased rates of depression, with rates ranging from 22.5% to 54%, averaging out to 31.4% when all data is included. Additionally, based on the paper, several studies indicate that abortion is more likely to result in depression than miscarriage, contradicting prior findings from groups such as the American Psychological Association.