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While more women globally are using medication to have abortions, a University of Maryland-led study published today in JAMA Psychiatry found no evidence that a first medication or procedural abortion caused an increase in mental health medication use.
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Using records from the Danish health registry, researchers looked to see whether a person's first medication or procedural abortion was related to filling a mental health prescription for the first time as a way to measure whether abortion method affects mental health. The study group had never previously filled a mental health prescription.
The study tracked prescriptions filled for a variety of psychiatric conditions, such as depression and anxiety, following a person's first abortion. From one year after an abortion and beyond, the researchers found no statistically significant increase in mental health medication use when adjusting for multiple tests. More than five years afterward, filling such prescriptions decreased when adjusting for multiple tests.
"Counter to a common perception around abortion, the results showed neither medication nor procedural abortion caused the use of psychotropic medications, which suggests that neither method increases risk of mental health issues," said Dr. Julia Steinberg, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the Department of Family Science at UMD's School of Public Health.
Steinberg and her Danish colleagues analyzed thousands of Danish health records of women and girls ages 12 to 38 who had an abortion by medication or procedure in the first trimester of pregnancy between 2000 and 2018. Denmark has provided abortions through its nationalized health care system since legalization in 1973.
Researchers compared prescriptions from one year before a person's abortion with prescriptions claimed in the first year afterward, one to two years afterward, two to five years afterward and more than five years afterward.
The study looked at all mental health medications treating a wide variety of conditions, including sleep disorders and ADHD, as well as medications that specifically target anxiety and depression.
"This research helps us better understand the association between abortion method and mental health. We did not investigate social factors like cultural stigmas around abortion, which could impact the mental health of a person after having an abortion and are likely to vary by place and culture," Steinberg said.
Within the year after a first abortion, the data showed a slight increase in psychiatric prescription use. However, after applying a common statistical adjustment necessary when analyzing a high number of variables and comparisons, researchers found the risks in that first year were no longer statistically significant.
The study used data from the Danish population, where more than 94% of people are white and where the national culture, legal framework and access to abortion and health care differ from those in the United States.
"While the study focused on Danish data, the results are an important rebuttal to claims that abortion—particularly medication abortion—harms mental health," Steinberg said.
Steinberg co-led a 2024 study that examined whether mental health disorders, measured by psychiatric diagnoses, increased after a medication or procedural abortion and found that neither abortion method increased the risk of psychiatric diagnoses in the short or long term.
More information: Julia R. Steinberg et al, Medication and Procedural Abortion and Risk of Psychotropic Medication Use, JAMA Psychiatry (2026). DOI: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.3698
Provided by University of Maryland
This story was originally published on Medical Xpress.
