LEAD: Legal, voluntary abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy does not threaten most women's mental health or cause them great emotional distress, a panel of experts has concluded after assessing leading studies.
Legal, voluntary abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy does not threaten most women's mental health or cause them great emotional distress, a panel of experts has concluded after assessing leading studies.
The panel's report, being published Friday in the journal Science, was commissioned by the American Psychological Association, which asked six experts to examine all current research and determine if a valid conclusion could be drawn about post-abortion psychological effects.
Dr. Nancy E. Adler, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco and the lead author of the report, said the panel surveyed more than 200 studies and found only ''about 19 or 20'' that met solid scientific standards.
A Clear Conclusion
Once those studies were examined, she said, the conclusion ''was really quite clear.''
Though some women may feel regret, sadness or guilt, ''the weight of the evidence from scientific studies indicates that legal abortion of an unwanted pregnancy in the first trimester does not pose a psychological hazard for most women,'' the study said.
The panel was convened in 1988 after Dr. C. Everett Koop, then the Surgeon General, reported that studies were inadequate to draw final conclusions about the effects of abortion on women's mental health.
In the report in Science, the authors said case studies have shown that some women do experience severe distress after abortion and ''require sympathetic care.''
Result on Negative Effects
But for a vast majority of those who have voluntary abortions, ''severe negative reactions are infrequent in the immediate and short-term aftermath,'' the study said.
The greatest distress, it found, ''is likely to be before the abortion.''
''Severe negative reactions after abortions are rare and can best be understood in the framework of coping with a normal life stress,'' the study said.
But Olivia Gans, director of American Victims of Abortion, called the study ''a manipulation'' of data from earlier studies. ''When you look at these studies, you can twist them any way you need to to get whatever conclusion you want,'' she said.
More Study Is Sought
Dr. Adler said in a telephone interview, ''I feel comfortable about the conclusion that there is little psychological hazard for women.'' But she noted that there was a need for scientific studies that would compare the effects of abortion with the effects of other stressful events in life like divorce or the death of a family member.
Dr. Adler said studies of the psychological effects of a death had shown that if there was no negative mental health response within a few months, there was little likelihood that one would develop later.
As a result, she said, ''there is reason to believe that there will be very little long-term effect'' from abortion.
But Ms. Gans, who said she had an abortion in 1981, said, ''I know many years later you still have to deal with emotional debris of that experience.''
Ms. Gans's organization is associated with the National Right-to-Life Committee.
The report also reported that most women said they had feelings of relief and happiness after an abortion in the first trimester. One study showed that 76 percent of women reported feeling relief two weeks after an abortion, and only 17 percent reported feeling guilt.
Women obtaining abortions in the second trimester, according to one study, experienced more distress than did those getting abortions in the first three months of pregnancy. Those having difficulty deciding on abortion are also more apt to experience negative effects afterward, the study said.
Science is the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
