(594 x 396 px, 300 dpi)
The subject of abortion elicits passionate responses from many groups within our society and new research will surely re-ignite the debate between the factions.
A study carried out by a New Zealand medical team highlights the increased risk of women suffering from a serious mental health illness following an abortion.
Results showed that a young woman's risk of depression, anxiety, and drug and alcohol abuse is raised by having an abortion.
Most abortions are approved on the grounds that if the pregnancy continued a woman's mental health would be threatened.
But research now shows that there is a greater likelihood of a woman suffering a serious psychological problem if she has an abortion rather than if she had a baby.
This suggests that abortion increases psychological distress rather than alleviating it.
The study was conducted on 90 women aged 25 who had had an abortion and 42% of these women had also experienced major depression at some stage.
This result is nearly double the rate of those who had never been pregnant and 35% higher than those who had chosen to continue their pregnancy.
Study leader Professor David Fergusson, told One News, "The findings did surprise me, but the results appear to be very robust because they persist across a series of disorders and a series of ages."
Overseas studies reveal that mental health conditions following an abortion may last a lifetime.
Under New Zealand's Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act 1977, abortion is an offence under the Crimes Act unless two "certifying consultants" approve it on certain grounds, such as a woman's mental health being endangered by continuing with the pregnancy.
Clinics perform most of the country's 18,000 abortions every year and 98% of abortions are authorised on the grounds that the pregnancy is a serious threat to the mental health of the woman.
"Abortion is the most common medical or surgical procedure young women undergo by far, and there are potential adverse reactions," said psychologist and epidemiologist David Fergusson of Christchurch University. "The aim of our research was never political. It was to say, 'The science in this area is not good. Let's add to it.'"
"There are a whole series of psycho-social problems that women who have abortions appear to have a higher rate than you would expect them to have, given their social previous history," he says.
In a radio interview, Fergusson told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that other medical researchers had described his team as foolhardy for undertaking a project in this area.
He said this was because "everybody knows that if you do research in this area, one side or the other is going to turn upon you because your results don't support them."
He also said his team had experienced "a certain amount of difficulty" in getting the results published. "Journals we would normally have expected to publish them just declined the papers," he said. "I think it's because the debate is so very hot."
The study was published in early January in The Journal of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, a widely recognized British academic publication.
Pro-life campaigners say this research is nothing new.
"A lot of the anecdotal evidence that comes back to us through our society and through people that do post-abortion counselling highlights this and endorses it," the president of Voice for Life, Josephine Reeves, told One News. Maria Parsons, a Canterbury woman who had an abortion 13 years ago, is now fighting for a change to the way the law is applied.
She said she still cries every day for the unborn child she agreed to "kill".
As with most abortions, the legal reason given for Ms Parsons' termination of the child she has called Isabella Maria was her mental health.
"If I was mentally ill, what was my treatment? Why did [my GP] treat it with abortion?"
"It has destroyed the last part of my life. Inside, there is just a longing to hold the baby and to see that 13-year-old standing here. I wonder what she looks like," she told the NZ Herald.
Ms Parsons, 47, hopes to tell her story to the High Court as lobby group Right to Life pursues a legal challenge claiming the law is being abused and too many abortions are being performed.
Feeds