After Abortion, Some People Report Worsening Mental Health. It’s Not About Regret, Experts Say

This article contains discussions about mental health, including suicidal ideation. For confidential post-abortion support, contact Exhale Pro Voice via text at 617-749-2948. If you experience suicidal ideation, contact 988 via phone, text, or online chat. 

When Melanie walked out of the abortion clinic in her city, it felt like a weight was lifted off of her shoulders. The 32-year-old, who is using a pseudonym to protect her privacy, had a procedural abortion at ten weeks of gestation after unintentionally getting pregnant with her then-partner. 

But a week later, Melanie said, fatigue and listlessness set in. She lost interest in certain life activities, like caring for her beloved cat. They were the familiar symptoms of depression, which Melanie recognized because she’s experienced depressive episodes in the past.

“This was such an intense phase of depression—all of those coping skills and resources, everything that I do normally went out the window,” Melanie told Rewire News Group. 

Still, she said, she didn’t regret the abortion care. 

Research shows that most people do not have emotional distress after getting an abortion. Yet Reddit message boards are filled with threads written by people with similar experiences as Melanie, who are seeking information about the negative emotions they felt after getting an abortions. Their posts have titles like, “crazy mood swings after abortion?,” “hormones after abortion,” and “is postpartum depression a thing if you got an abortion?”

To better understand the experiences of such patients, Rewire News Group spoke with both patients and mental health experts. Mental health symptom exacerbation after abortion, experts said, has little to do with the decision to end a pregnancy and is more likely linked to social and medical factors, including previous mental health history.

Assessing for mental health risks

Researchers who spoke to RNG confirmed that most people do not have emotional distress after an abortion. Still, they said it’s still crucial for providers to evaluate these patients’ mental health. 

Abortion providers should continue to assess for “preexisting mental health concerns that may be related to the pregnancy and abortion decision,” said Lawrence University psychologist Rachel Dyer, who contributed a chapter about post-abortion emotions for a clinical guide called, The Handbook of Abortion Care for Mental Health Professionals. 

Preexisting mental health concerns don’t preclude someone from having an abortion, Dyer emphasized. And because abortion access is already so restricted in many places, experts who spoke to RNG say, adding more barriers to care, like a mandated mental health screening, would do more harm than good. 

But in a perfect world, there would be more research on the abortion for people who have preexisting mental health conditions and stronger networks of emotional support in the medical system.   

Anti-abortion rhetoric can cloud real mental health concerns 

Spreading the false idea that abortions cause mental illness is a common tactic of anti-choice groups. 

Anti-abortion organizations like Care Net and Heartbeat International started to promote this claim in the 1970s, with the rise of conservative Christian anti-choice pregnancy centers that offered psychological counseling for people who had or were considering abortions. Coined “post-abortion syndrome,” these groups have claimed that having an abortion is associated with a trauma response like post-traumatic stress disorder. 

But medical experts confirm that there is not any mental health diagnosis linked to having an abortion. 

The concept of “post-abortion syndrome” has been “widely debunked”, said Dr. Sarah Oreck, a reproductive psychiatrist and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based virtual reproductive mental health clinic Mavida Health. It “falsely suggests that abortion inherently leads to regret or mental illness,” she added. 

Most people do not experience regret or significant mental health changes after an abortion, Oreck said, citing multiple studies. A 2011 article in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 1.5 percent of people who had a first-trimester abortion sought psychiatric care in the year after their abortion. 

This and other research has also found that stressful circumstances surrounding the unwanted pregnancy—economic, interpersonal, or otherwise—could contribute to mental health distress. 

The physiological changes that happen after pregnancy termination may also contribute to symptoms like fatigue, mood swings, and sadness for some people. 

“In early pregnancy, the body undergoes major hormonal shifts … when a pregnancy ends, whether naturally, by medication, or procedure, hormone levels drop suddenly, which can trigger mood instability and depressive symptoms,” said Oreck. 

That’s true “even when the decision feels right,” Oreck added. 

The risk of that could potentially be higher for people with a history of mood disorders, Oreck said, but emphasized that everyone’s experience with abortion is different. 

“Pre-existing vulnerabilities, such as anxiety, trauma, or lack of support, can intensify distress,” Oreck added. 

But sound scientific data on how a history of mental illness could impact post-abortion mental health is limited, according to experts who spoke to RNG. That makes it hard to improve care and identify those most at risk. 

“What we need is better research on supporting people who already have mental health conditions when seeking abortion care, and how to identify those at higher risk during unwanted pregnancy, regardless of outcome,” Oreck said.

Dyer, the Wisconsin-based psychologist, agrees. She would like to see more “quality research” on the complex relationships between mental health history and emotional experiences following abortion, particularly for patients already accessing psychological care. 

“We need to … account for their whole history and not just assume that … if a person has had abortion and they are depressed or experiencing some other mental health concerns, it must be because of the abortion,” Dyer said. 

Because of limited data, researchers are left to extrapolate on some of abortion’s potential hormonal and emotional effects based on what they know about  other reproductive experiences, like spontaneous miscarriage, and postpartum hormones. 

According to Dyer, the dip in estrogen and progesterone that occurs after an abortion or miscarriage may be similar to the hormonal changes that cause postpartum “baby blues,” a short phase after birth where a new parent may experience heightened emotional distress, tearfulness, and sadness for a few weeks after birth. 

For some people, these symptoms, combined with other factors, could progress to a more severe mood disorder akin to postpartum depression. But there’s not enough data to confirm that, Dyer said. 

More commonly, hormonal changes after an abortion could trigger some short-term symptoms similar to mental health conditions associated with the immediate time period of pregnancy ending.  

“Our bodies do not know why we are not pregnant anymore; they merely act accordingly,” Dyer said.  

Abortion stigma affects mental health 

It can be difficult to separate the hormonal changes that come from ending a pregnancy from the social factors that may exacerbate mental health problems, said Danika Severino Wynn, a certified nurse midwife and the vice president of care and access for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. These external stressors include logistical and financial stress, social stigma, and shame around abortion.

The three abortion patients RNG interviewed did have a prior history of mental health conditions, including anxiety and depression, before having an abortion. 

J., who requested only her first initial be used to protect her privacy, had experienced prior mental health difficulties and said her mental health deteriorated after a medication abortion. 

She had gotten pregnant by a then-partner she was not proud to be involved with, and decided to end the pregnancy with a self-managed abortion. J. said she had her abortion alone, without anyone she felt she could turn to for support. 

That experience took a toll on her. 

“When I laid in bed and had my body go through the pill’s bloody aftermath, the depressive mental and physical state truly proved to me that I was on my own in my suffering,” J. said. 

But, she said, her mental health was worse than her baseline prior to abortion. 

“Shame, guilt, and depression, anxiety do follow me,” J. said, explaining that she had palpable thoughts of no longer wanting to be alive and of attempting to end her life. “The abortion elevated it and turned it physical.” 

Melanie, too, has a history of mental health challenges. She has a diagnosis of Bipolar II disorder—which includes major depression—and has experienced suicidal ideation. And she still undergoes regular mental health treatment. 

Immediately after she had her abortion, Melanie said she felt nothing but relief. But within a week of the procedure, a deep depression set in. In this period, she felt the closest she ever felt to acting on those thoughts of self-harm. 

“I have experience with suicidal ideation and depression—it was so powerful that my suicidal ideation turned to planning,” Melanie said. “[I] was looking to rehome my cat.” 

Yet both Melanie and J. emphasized that they don’t regret their decisions to end their pregnancies; both definitely did not want to be parents. Research has repeatedly found that people who have had abortions overwhelmingly report feeling relieved, both immediately after and in the years that follow. 

There’s also evidence that carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term can be associated with poor mental health outcomes, including depression during the pregnancy, postpartum depression, and even years after birth. 

Even with the feeling of relief, social stigma around abortion for some still contributes to significant psychological distress. Synclaire Warren, a writer, speaker, and content creator, grew her social media following her decision to share her abortion story publicly after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Before that, she had barely told anyone. 

Warren and a former partner got pregnant completely by surprise: Her intrauterine device didn’t work, and it led to an unplanned pregnancy in the winter of 2021. Warren said she went to the doctor after feeling sick, and found out she was pregnant at the doctor’s office.

In a state of shock, Warren described “rocking back and forth” all night, before coming to the decision to have a medication abortion. 

It was “indescribable how alone and scared and painful it was for me,” Warren told RNG. She recalled “feeling like your body isn’t yours” while going through the process. She said she felt isolated and was paranoid that people would find out. Not telling her loved ones about her decision weighed on her. 

At the same time, Warren said ending the pregnancy was the right choice for her.  

“All the joy I have in my life is because I made that choice: finishing my master’s at Fordham, working freelance, having a partner I live with, and living in New York City,” Warren said. 

J. echoed the sentiment of internalizing societal stigma about abortion.

“I wish I was stronger to ask my sisters for help, but I was so riddled with shame and guilt that I wanted to do it on my own.” 

Still, J. said she’s grateful abortion was an option in Pennsylvania, where she lived at the time. Because of a combination of life stressors, it took some time for her to finally feel more like herself; after a few years, she saw larger improvements in her mental health.

Abortion bans impede research and care improvements

Abortion restrictions further complicate attempts to better understand how abortion affects mental health. As of November 2025, 12 U.S. states have total abortion bans. 

“What we know for sure is that denying abortion care can have long-term negative effects on mental and physical health,” Severino Wynn said. 

She pointed to research like The Turnaway Study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, which found a link between a lack of access to abortion care and the risk of pregnancy complications like eclampsia, anxiety, and staying in abusive relationships as a result of continuing an unwanted pregnancy.

“Better research should examine how existing psychiatric conditions interact with abortion access and timing, barriers to mental health care for people seeking abortion in restrictive states, and evidence-based screening approaches for those with known mental health histories,” Oreck said. 

If people have a mental health condition history and are considering an abortion, a pre-procedure screening that can connect someone to psychiatric support they may need afterward is appropriate, according to Oreck. 

“We’re supporting them through a stressful time, not because the procedure causes mental illness,” she said. 

But in the current abortion access landscape, it won’t be logistically feasible, nor would it be good practice to mandate universal mental health screening, Oreck added. 

It may be possible for some people with a history of mental health issues who wish to get support to do so at a reproductive health clinic. 

“Many providers, including some Planned Parenthood health centers, offer mental or behavioral health counseling,” Severino Wynn added. “They may also be able to refer you to expert, judgment-free care through platforms like Pro-Choice Therapists.” 

Mental health providers can also do their part to create an open space for discussing abortion experiences in standard clinical encounters. 

“This means validating a range of emotions, addressing fears or uncertainties, and integrating abortion care into routine mental health conversations—just as we do with pregnancy, miscarriage, or postpartum experiences,” Oreck said. 

Other resources that Severino Wynn directs Planned Parenthood clients toward for processing any emotions, including anxiety and depression, after an abortion include the Miscarriage+Abortion Hotline for medical provider-led guidance, Reprocare for anonymous peer-based support during an abortion, The Doula Project for text-based medication abortion help, and Exhale ProVoice, which offers free post-abortion text support and support groups.  

‘I’m so glad you told me’

Anti-choice groups have tried to weaponize the mental health effects of abortion as a reason to justify bans. But that logic, experts say, does not hold up.

“The bottom line is abortion is a very safe and common form of health care,” Severino Wynn said. “Each person’s experience can be different, and there are resources available for those who need them.” 

That’s one of the reasons why Melanie emphasized sharing abortion experiences and support with her own personal network. 

After her abortion, Melanie spoke with a friend who also decided to have one. Because her friend struggled with her mental health, Melanie felt compelled to warn her and remind her to take extra care of herself after her abortion. 

Melanie checked in with her friend on her experience months later. The first thing her friend said was, “Thank God you told me.”

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