More than 95 percent of women who have had an abortion feel they made the right decision

That's according to a study by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a think tank at the University of California, San Francisco.(h/t ThinkProgress) The study examined hundreds of women from different backgrounds and experiences, including women who chose to have first-trimester and late-term abortions. Even three years after their procedures, participants felt overwhelmingly relieved, rather than regretful, ANSIRH reports.

ANSIRH had set out to examine claims that abortions cause women emotional harm, particularly in later procedures, and found such claims were based on inconclusive evidence. The think tank tested for women for "negative" emotions, such as regret, anger, guilt, or sadness, as compared with "positive" emotions, like relief and happiness. The predicted probability of a woman reporting that an abortion was the right decision was over 99 percent at all times during the three years of the study. "Women experienced decreasing emotional intensity over time and the overwhelming majority of women felt that termination was the right decision for them over three years," ANSIRH concluded.

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