Only a small minority of women who have had an abortion regret their decision, according to new research published in PLOS One.
“Results from this study suggest that claims that many women experience abortion decision regret are likely unfounded,” the authors of the study said.
“In the three years after terminating a pregnancy, women tended to cope well emotionally. Women overwhelmingly felt abortion was the right decision in both the short-term and over three years, and the intensity of emotions and frequency of thinking about the abortion declined over time.”
In the study, the researchers found that 95 percent of women who had terminated a pregnancy thought having an abortion was the right decision for them. This was true both immediately after the abortion and over 3 years later.
The study was based on data from 667 participants in the Turnaway Study, a longitudinal study examining women seeking abortions. More than 53 percent of the women in the study said the decision to seek an abortion was difficult or very difficult.
The researchers also found that positive emotions outweighed negative emotions among women who had abortions, and their emotional intensity decreased over time.
“The feelings of relief and happiness experienced shortly after the abortion tended to subside, as did negative emotions,” the authors of the study wrote.