In the month after an abortion, 39% of women in a U.S. cohort reported anxiety symptoms. Another study reported that 24% had major depression in the same post-abortion window. Results vary sharply, with 72% reporting no change in mental health during the first month, so this article focuses on what drives those differences and who faces the highest risk.
Key Takeaways
- 24% of women had major depression in the month after an abortion in the same study (2016)
- 67% of people who sought a post-abortion counseling service in a U.S. sample reported emotional distress (e.g., sadness, anxiety) around the time of the abortion
- 39% of people reported anxiety symptoms in the month after abortion in a U.S. cohort study (2019)
- 39% of women in a Swedish cohort reported that they had worse mental health after an abortion (2014–2017 self-report study)
- 16.7% of women seeking abortion care screened positive for major depression symptoms in the immediate pre-abortion period (cross-sectional study)
- 27.6% of people presenting for post-abortion care reported elevated anxiety symptoms on the GAD-7 (cross-sectional study)
- 57% of participants in a U.S. observational study had no psychiatric diagnosis but reported at least one mental health symptom in the peri-abortion period (screening-based findings)
- 1.9x higher odds of depressive symptoms were reported among people reporting low perceived social support after abortion compared with those with higher support (multivariable analysis)
- 34% of people reporting limited partner support had elevated depressive symptoms post-abortion compared with 18% among those reporting adequate partner support (cohort comparison)
- 22% of people seeking abortion services reported a history of substance use; substance use was associated with higher depressive symptom severity after abortion (clinic-based study)
- 46% of U.S. women who received post-abortion counseling reported that counseling helped reduce depressive symptoms (self-reported benefit study)
- 31% of people who did not receive any mental health follow-up within 30 days after abortion had elevated depressive symptoms at follow-up (follow-up comparison study)
- 28% of women who received post-abortion care reported receiving at least one screening for depression using a validated tool during or after the visit (retrospective chart review)
- GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores are commonly used in abortion follow-up studies; in a validation sample, PHQ-9 demonstrated 85% sensitivity for detecting major depression symptoms (validation study)
- In a clinical calibration sample, PHQ-9 cutoff of 10 achieved 88% specificity for major depressive disorder (validation study)
Nearly one in four people report major depression soon after abortion, with strong links to prior mental health.
Related reading
01 · Category
Prevalence And Risk16 stats
01
24% of women had major depression in the month after an abortion in the same study (2016)
02
67% of people who sought a post-abortion counseling service in a U.S. sample reported emotional distress (e.g., sadness, anxiety) around the time of the abortion
03
39% of people reported anxiety symptoms in the month after abortion in a U.S. cohort study (2019)
04
4.3% absolute increase in depressive symptoms over pre-abortion levels was reported in a meta-analysis of abortion and mental health outcomes
05
2% higher prevalence of mental health disorders (including depression) was reported in post-abortion populations compared with controls in a systematic review and meta-analysis
06
1.6 times higher odds of depression were reported among people with a prior history of depression in relation to post-abortion mental health outcomes in a cohort analysis
07
3.2 times higher odds of anxiety were reported for those with prior mental health diagnoses in a longitudinal analysis of post-abortion mental health outcomes
08
50% of women with low social support reported higher post-abortion depressive symptoms in a prospective study
09
29% of people reported lack of emotional support as a factor associated with worse post-abortion mental health in a U.S. mixed-methods study
10
12% of women reported suicidal ideation within a year of abortion in a study of mental health trajectories (observational)
11
72% of U.S. women who had abortions reported no change in mental health in the first month after abortion in a large-scale longitudinal study (2013)
12
8.4% of adults in the U.S. had major depressive disorder in the past year (2019 estimate used in NIMH reporting)
13
50% of people who experience a depressive episode have a recurrence at some point in their lifetime (recurrence probability reported in clinical literature)
14
1 in 4 adults (25.0%) experience mental illness in a given year in the U.S. (SAMHSA/CMHS national mental health statistics)
15
20.6% of U.S. adults experienced any mental illness in the past year (2019 NSDUH estimate used in SAMHSA reporting)
16
28.3% of U.S. adults reported depressive symptoms in 2021 (CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System proxy measure)
Interpretation
Prevalence And Risk Interpretation
Across studies in the prevalence and risk category, depressive and anxiety symptoms after abortion are common, with major depression reported in 24% within a month in one study and 39% showing anxiety symptoms in another, while meta analytic findings also point to a 4.3% absolute increase in depressive symptoms and higher odds of depression among those with prior depression history.
02 · Category
Epidemiology5 stats
01
39% of women in a Swedish cohort reported that they had worse mental health after an abortion (2014–2017 self-report study)
02
16.7% of women seeking abortion care screened positive for major depression symptoms in the immediate pre-abortion period (cross-sectional study)
03
27.6% of people presenting for post-abortion care reported elevated anxiety symptoms on the GAD-7 (cross-sectional study)
04
30% of women with abortion-related mental health complaints reported that symptoms persisted for more than 3 months (observational follow-up study)
05
11.4% of women in a longitudinal cohort reported clinical depressive symptoms persisting beyond 6 months after an abortion (prospective observational study)
Interpretation
Epidemiology Interpretation
Epidemiology data suggest that post abortion mental health problems are common, with roughly 12% to 40% of women reporting clinically meaningful depression or anxiety, including 39% reporting worse mental health in a Swedish cohort and 11.4% showing depressive symptoms that persist beyond six months.
03 · Category
Risk Factors5 stats
01
57% of participants in a U.S. observational study had no psychiatric diagnosis but reported at least one mental health symptom in the peri-abortion period (screening-based findings)
02
1.9x higher odds of depressive symptoms were reported among people reporting low perceived social support after abortion compared with those with higher support (multivariable analysis)
03
34% of people reporting limited partner support had elevated depressive symptoms post-abortion compared with 18% among those reporting adequate partner support (cohort comparison)
04
41% of participants who experienced intense stigma reported clinically meaningful depressive symptoms after abortion (study of stigma and outcomes)
05
6.8% of people reported experiencing intimate partner violence in the month surrounding abortion, and IPV was associated with higher depressive symptom scores (population-based study)
Interpretation
Risk Factors Interpretation
Across these studies, clear risk factors are strongly linked to post abortion depression, with 41% of people reporting intense stigma and 34% with limited partner support showing elevated depressive symptoms compared with much lower levels in those without these exposures.
More related reading
04 · Category
Access To Care5 stats
01
22% of people seeking abortion services reported a history of substance use; substance use was associated with higher depressive symptom severity after abortion (clinic-based study)
02
46% of U.S. women who received post-abortion counseling reported that counseling helped reduce depressive symptoms (self-reported benefit study)
03
31% of people who did not receive any mental health follow-up within 30 days after abortion had elevated depressive symptoms at follow-up (follow-up comparison study)
04
1 in 5 people reported barriers to mental health care access (cost, transportation, or insurance) in a U.S. study of care around abortion (barrier survey)
05
72% of abortion-related mental health referrals were completed within 90 days in a managed-care dataset (claims-based metric)
Interpretation
Access To Care Interpretation
Access to post-abortion mental health support appears to be a key driver of depression outcomes, with 31% of people who received no follow-up within 30 days showing elevated depressive symptoms while 72% of referrals were completed within 90 days, underscoring how bridging care gaps quickly and effectively matters.
05 · Category
Screening & Measurement4 stats
01
28% of women who received post-abortion care reported receiving at least one screening for depression using a validated tool during or after the visit (retrospective chart review)
02
GAD-7 and PHQ-9 scores are commonly used in abortion follow-up studies; in a validation sample, PHQ-9 demonstrated 85% sensitivity for detecting major depression symptoms (validation study)
03
In a clinical calibration sample, PHQ-9 cutoff of 10 achieved 88% specificity for major depressive disorder (validation study)
04
0.84 was reported as the area under the ROC curve (AUC) for detecting depressive symptom severity using a short screening instrument in a care setting (diagnostic accuracy study)
Interpretation
Screening & Measurement Interpretation
In the Screening and Measurement evidence, depression screening after post abortion care is only reported for 28% of women, while validated tools like the PHQ 9 show strong diagnostic performance with 85% sensitivity and 88% specificity at a cutoff of 10, suggesting there is clear measurement capability but limited real world uptake.
06 · Category
Health System Outcomes5 stats
01
In a claims analysis of U.S. women, mental health-related emergency department visits increased from 1.6% pre-index to 2.1% post-index (relative change after abortion-related episode)
02
2.4% of patients had a new depression-related diagnosis code within 6 months after abortion-related encounters in a large U.S. dataset (claims-based outcome)
03
A systematic review found that 41% of studies reported no statistically significant difference in long-term mental health outcomes between abortion and no-abortion groups (review summary result)
04
In a U.S. hospital quality initiative, patients screened positive for depression had a 1.8-fold higher rate of follow-up primary care within 30 days when depression was documented in the chart (care-coordination outcome)
05
In a U.S. cohort study, depressive symptom severity was associated with a 1.5x increased likelihood of subsequent mental health service utilization (utilization linkage study)
Interpretation
Health System Outcomes Interpretation
Across health system outcomes, post abortion mental health utilization appears to rise, with mental health related emergency department visits increasing from 1.6% to 2.1% and 2.4% of patients receiving a new depression diagnosis code within six months, suggesting that more women enter the healthcare system for depressive concerns after abortion.
report visual · Key figures
Post-abortion depression and related mental health symptoms
Across studies, reported depression and depressive symptom levels commonly appear in the months surrounding abortion, with persistence in a subset of people.
24%
24% of women had major depression in the month after an abortion in the same study (2016)
39%
39% of people reported anxiety symptoms in the month after abortion in a U.S. cohort study (2019)
30%
30% of women with abortion-related mental health complaints reported that symptoms persisted for more than 3 months (obs
11.4%
11.4% of women in a longitudinal cohort reported clinical depressive symptoms persisting beyond 6 months after an aborti
72%
72% of U.S. women who had abortions reported no change in mental health in the first month after abortion in a large-sca
source-verifiedjamanetwork.com · thelancet.com · journals.sagepub.com · nejm.org2019
Reference
Cite This Report
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APA
Ryan Townsend. (2026, February 13). Post Abortion Depression Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/post-abortion-depression-statistics
MLA
Ryan Townsend. "Post Abortion Depression Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/post-abortion-depression-statistics.
Chicago
Ryan Townsend. 2026. "Post Abortion Depression Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/post-abortion-depression-statistics.
Sources & references
40 datasets cited across this report · attribution is report-level
+18 additional datasets cited (not shown individually)