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

Pro-choice protester outside the Supreme Court

(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

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.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Explore More

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.