Canadian study links abortion to higher risk of mental health hospitalization

09/07/2025 / By Laura Harris

A Canadian study found that women who had abortions were more than twice as likely to be hospitalized for psychiatric, substance-related and suicide-related reasons compared to women who gave birth.
The study analyzed health records from over 1.25 million women in Quebec (2006–2022), showing a hospitalization rate of 104 per 10,000 per year for women post-abortion, versus 42 per 10,000 for those who gave birth.
Mental health risks were most elevated in the five years following an abortion, gradually aligning with childbirth outcomes after approximately 17 years.
Women under 25, those with prior psychiatric diagnoses and mothers with previous live births faced the greatest post-abortion mental health risks.
Similar studies in Denmark and the U.S. report increased psychiatric treatment, hospitalization and long-term mental health issues following abortion, supporting a global pattern of elevated risk.

A newly published Canadian study has found that women who undergo abortions face more than double the risk of psychiatric, substance-related and suicide-related hospitalizations compared to women who carry their pregnancies to term.

The study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, analyzed health records from Quebec between 2006 and 2022, including data from 28,721 women who had abortions and 1,228,807 women who gave birth. Researchers reported a significant disparity in mental health outcomes between the two groups.

According to the findings, women who had abortions required hospitalization for mental health reasons at a rate of 104 per 10,000 per year, compared to 42 per 10,000 per year among women who gave birth. The study noted the risk was particularly elevated in the first five years following an abortion, with the gap gradually narrowing over time, taking up to 17 years for risks to align with those of women who delivered.

Subgroup analyses revealed that certain populations were especially vulnerable.

Women under the age of 25 and those with a history of psychiatric illness faced the highest post-abortion mental health risks. Hospitalizations for suicide attempts occurred at a rate of 14.7 per 10,000 among women who had abortions, while substance use-related hospitalizations reached 56.7 per 10,000, both significantly higher than the rates for women who gave birth.

Another notable finding was that women who already had children experienced greater mental health-related hospitalizations post-abortion than women without prior live births.

The research, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Quebec Health Research Fund, acknowledged that women who sought abortions were more likely to have had prior psychiatric diagnoses, which could partly explain the increased risk of hospitalization. (Related: Pro-abortion feminist ADMITS abortion ends a human life, but says it’s justifiable.)

Canadian study confirms growing body of research linking abortion to increased mental health risks

According to Brighteon.AI‘s Enoch, abortion has been linked to a range of potential long-term effects on mental health, including increased risks of psychiatric treatment and hospitalizations, as evidenced by studies in various countries.

The findings of the recent Canadian study complement a trend observed internationally through large-scale data analyses.

For instance, in Denmark, a comprehensive review of national medical records revealed that women who had a first abortion experienced a 50 percent increased risk of receiving first-time psychiatric treatment within a year of the procedure, compared to women who did not have an abortion.

Similarly, studies in the United States using Medicaid claims data have identified sharp increases in mental health service usage following abortion. One analysis found that outpatient psychiatric treatments more than doubled in the year after an abortion, compared to the year prior. The study also reported significant increases in both psychiatric hospitalizations and the duration of inpatient stays for women post-abortion.

Another U.S. study of Medicaid data examined the long-term mental health impact of abortion on women who later gave birth. The research showed that women with a history of abortion faced an 83 percent higher risk of psychiatric hospitalization in the postpartum period following a subsequent live birth. Researchers also found a “dose effect,” meaning the more abortions a woman had, the greater the risk of future mental health complications.

Check out Abortions.news for more stories related to the murder of the unborn.

Watch this clip from “Judging Freedom” as Judge Andrew Napolitano discusses how legalizing abortion changed America.

This video is from the channel What Is Happening on Brighteon.com.