81 - Psychology of Abortion Two Shrinks Pod

For episode 81 we’re taking a comprehensive, research driven look at abortion: what it’s like making the decision, how it impacts people psychologically and what happens if you can’t have one when you want to? Join us for a discussion of what the research actually says, in all it’s complexity, about how women respond after an abortion.To skip forward to a particular topic:
05:30 Decision making
19:35 Psychological impacts of having a voluntary abortion
40:25 Impacts on sexual functioning
44:45 Psychological impacts of having an abortion for medical reasons
49:12 Outcomes for women who want an abortion but are denied one























































































































This week’s episode was brought to you by Calabash. Access your free talk at:https://calabash.courses/psych-company/




































Research (in order of discussion):
Introduction:
APA Taskforce on Mental Health and Abortion (2008) https://www.apa.org/pi/women/programs/abortion/mental-health.pdf 
Abortion definition (2019) https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/nine-out-of-10-abortions-done-before-12-weeks-in-many-high-income-countries/  
Australian abortion rates (2021) https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2021/215/8/estimating-abortion-rate-australia-national-hospital-morbidity-and 
Decision making:
Bracken & Kasl (1975) Delay in seeking induced abortion: a review and theoretical analysishttps://doi.org/10.1016/0002-9378(75)90929-1 
Miller (1992) An empirical study of psychological antecedents and consequences of induced abortionhttps://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1992.tb00898.x 
Allanson (2007) Abortion decision and ambivalence: Insights via an abortion decision balance sheethttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13284200701675767 
Pereira, Pires & Canavarro (2019) Decision-making trajectories leading to termination of an unplanned pregnancy: specificities among adolescent and adult women https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2019.1566596 
Leithner et al (2021) Three or less? Decision making for or against selective reduction and psychological outcome in forty women with a triplet pregnancyhttps://doi.org/10.1080/0167482X.2020.1750005 
Psychological responses following a voluntary abortion:
Steinberg et al (2016) Psychosocial factors and pre-abortion psychological health: the significance of stigma https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.12.007 
Horvath & Schreiber (2017) Unintended pregnancy, induced abortion, and mental healthhttps://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-017-0832-4 
Rocca et al (2013) Women’s emotions one week after receiving or being denied an abortion in the United States https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24020773/
O’Donnell, O’Carroll and Toole (2018) Internalized stigma and stigma-related isolation predict women’s psychological distress and physical health symptoms post-abortion https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0361684317748937 
Foster et al (2015) A comparison of depression and anxiety symptom trajectories between women who had an abortion and women denied onehttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25628123/
Toffol et al (2016) Anxiety and quality of life after first-trimester termination of pregnancy: a prospective study https://doi.org/10.1111/aogs.12959 
Van Ditzhuijzen et al (2018) Long-term incidence and recurrence of common mental disorders after abortion. A Dutch prospective cohort studyhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2018.04.001 
Biggs et al (2017) Women’s mental health and well-being 5 years after receiving or being denied an abortion: a prospective, longitudinal cohort studyhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go