title:  Study SHATTERS Conservative Claim That Abortion Does Mental Damage To Women
text: Conservatives are lying when they claim banning abortion is necessary to protect women s mental health.For years, conservatives have used that excuse to justify jamming anti-abortion legislation down women s throats.Now a new study just proved that conservatives are full of shit.Between 2008 and 2010, 956 women were recruited from 30 abortion clinics across 21 states to participate in a comprehensive study over the course of five years. The women included those who were able to get an abortion and those who were not able to get one. The purpose of the study sought to discover the mental effects of having an abortion or being denied an abortion.The results of the study will likely cause conservatives to throw temper tantrums.As it turns out, women suffer worse mental health consequences when they are denied the abortion they are seeking.In short, conservatives are lying when they claim that abortion causes long-term psychological problems.Dr. Diana Greene Foster, the co-author of the study, said that  mental health improves over time regardless of the outcome but the conservative claim that abortion is harmful to women s mental health is factually false. Eight days after seeking an abortion, women who were denied an abortion reported significantly more anxiety symptoms and lower self-esteem and life satisfaction, but similar levels of depression, as women receiving abortions; outcomes improved or remained steady over time,  the study concluded. Abortion denial may be initially associated with psychological harm to women and findings do not support restricting abortion on the basis that abortion harms women s mental health. At the time we started, there was a lot of debate and very little data about the actual mental-health consequences from abortion,  Foster said.  There was a public dialogue that abortion hurt women, but not much evidence, and even the best of studies didn t have a comparison group. So much of our debate is ideology with no factual reference to real women s experiences,  Foster continued.  What this study does is give an objective look at what real women making this decision and living their lives experience. Of course, conservatives are just going to deny the facts anyway because facts and evidence get in the way of their agenda to control women and their bodies.Featured image via Cagle