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| Abortion and Substance Abuse | A new Elliot Institute research has determined a strong statistical connection between abortion and subsequent drug or alcohol abuse. This discovery is based on a national, accidental example of 700 women participating in a reproductive history review.
After expelling women who were drawn into substance abuse previous to their first pregnancy, Elliot Institute scientists found that of the women examined, those who aborted their first pregnancy were 3.9 times more expected to be drawn into following drug or alcohol abuse than those who have never had an abortion. These new outcomes have a high degree of statistical significance, which means that there is less than 1 chance in 10,000 that these findings could have happened owing to chance.
Explorers who have searched substance abuse have long informed that women have higher risk than men to face the onset of alcohol or drug abuse to a special nerve-racking event or a “definite life situation.” Therefore, it is not astonishing that various studies have found a straight connection between substance abuse and abortion. Indeed, if there is any agreement among researchers on both sides of the abortion debate, it is the agreement that abortion is, at the very least, stressful and emotionally difficult for most women.
For example, during thorough conversations with 30 post-abortion women, it has found that 60% admitted to increased alcohol use after their abortions. The greater part of the women interviewed specially ascribed their drug or alcohol abuse to stress associated to the abortion. Only 10% said they had already engaged in substance abuse prior to their abortions.
Because of the sampling method, aforementioned study cannot be applied to the total population of women seeking abortions. But those findings do point out that among women who have experienced negative post-abortion reactions; most of those who were drawn into substance abuse consider they did so in an effort to cope with abortion-related stress.
Plentiful other studies on substance abuse have also informed about a connection with abortion. For instance, one accidental study established that women who confirmed a history of induced abortion were more than twice as likely to become heavy drinkers (13%) in comparison to women in general (6%). In another study of women treated at an alcohol detoxification center, researchers discovered that female patients were likely to have experienced an abortion in the same year as their alcohol-related problems began. Some other researchers have reported that teenagers are at a considerably higher risk of being drawn into substance abuse following abortion compared to older women.
The new Elliot Institute study corroborated the pattern observed in these previous studies and adds additional insights into the relative risk of substance abuse for those carrying an unplanned pregnancy to term versus those who choose abort.
This study found that for all the women examined who were pregnant previous to a history of substance abuse, the speed of post-pregnancy substance abuse rose from 3.8% for women who did not abort to 14.6% for women who did abort their first pregnancy.
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