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Summary: Abortion Connected to Subsequent Substance
Abuse
Women who go through an abortion are more likely to surrender to
substance abuse than women who carry their pregnancies to term.
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According to the
American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse there is a significant
connection between women who have had an abortion and subsequent
substance abuse.
Researchers distributed a mass mailing survey to 4,929 women between
the ages of 24 and 44 years old. 700 surveys were returned, and 22%
of the respondents reported having at least one induced abortion. In
order to explore the effect of the outcome of a first pregnancy on
subsequent abuse, the survey population was further limited to white
women with a history of at least one pregnancy, excluding women who
were presently pregnancy at the time of the survey, women whose
first abortion occurred after their first pregnancy, and women with
a reported history of substance abuse prior to their first
pregnancy. Within this group, tests showed that women who aborted
their first pregnancy were 4.5 ties more likely to report substance
abuse than women who had never undergone an induced abortion.
Additionally, a history of substance abuse was associated with being
younger at the time of sexual intercourse and being younger at the
time of first pregnancy. Because of this finding, pre-abortion
counseling should include the discussion of the increased risk of
post-abortion substance abuse.1
1
Abortion and Subsequent Substance
Abuse,
American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 2000
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