by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor

October 10, 2008

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A new poll conducted by a research institute that surveys how abortion affects women finds 85 percent of Americans say negative emotional problems after an abortion are common or very common. Several post-abortion researchers discussed the poll at a recent forum.

The Family Research Council held a discussion forum on Thursday featuring top researchers from across the country who discussed how abortion adversely affects women's mental health.

They focused considerable time discussing a new poll sponsored by the Elliot Institute and conducted by DialingServices.com, a firm that arranges automated phone polls.

The survey asked several different questions about whether women face negative problems after an abortion and it found even 60 percent of those who say they are "pro-choice" also believe post-abortion emotional problems are common or very common.

Only 15 percent of those polled believed that abortion generally makes women's lives better while almost 55 percent believe it generally makes women’s lives worse. As expected, pro-life advocates were more likely to say abortion makes women's lives worse while abortion backers say better.

Men were more likely than women to say that abortion makes women's lives worse.

Just 12 percent of respondents said abortion has little impact on women's lives and another 18 percent were unsure.

When negative emotional reactions occur, 84% believe the reactions are moderately to very severe.

The poll relied on a scale of 1 to 9 to ask respondents how many women suffer problems after an abortion. Only 19 percent marked 4 or less to show that they thought fewer women had problems while 34 percent marked 9 to show they thought all women had emotional problems after an abortion. Some 65 percent marked 6 or higher.

Women were more likely than men to say that higher numbers of women suffered from emotional problems after an abortion.

Using the same 1 to 9 scale to mark how severe the problems are that women have after an abortion, almost 85 percent ranked the mental health problems following an abortion a 5 or higher.

Women were more likely than men to rank the problems a 7 or higher, but also more likely to rank them lower as men were more likely to call the mental health problems moderate.

Those who have the least affiliation with either a pro-life or pro-choice view, tend to have a significantly more negative view of abortion's effects than those who are pro-choice, but not as negative as for those who are pro-life.



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