The psychological effects of abortion are a subject of endless dispute, particularly in the US. Anti-abortionists would like us to believe that women who have abortions suffer lifelong regrets, amounting in some cases to severe depression.

Defenders of abortion say that the evidence for this is poor, much of it coming from studies that fail to meet the most rigorous standards.

The latest American Psychological Association (APA) study is another round in the verbal ping pong. The chairwoman of the APA task force, Professor Brenda Major, of the University of California at Santa Barbara, is on record as concluding that most women do not experience depression after an abortion. So the anti-abortionists are likely to dismiss the study as: “She would say that, wouldn't she?” Similarly, any study by David Reardon will be dismissed by the pro-abortionists. Reardon founded and runs the Eliot Institute, a small US think-tank, and views abortion as psychologically damaging.

There are studies that back both points of view; understandably in view of the methodological difficulties involved. To get a final answer one would need to know the reasons for each abortion, have a psychological profile of each of the women involved before and after her abortion, and create a control group with which to compare them.

In practice this is impossible. Do women become depressed because they have had an abortion, or have an abortion because they have good reasons for being depressed? The bulk of the best available evidence suggests that a single abortion does not carry psychological hazards greater than does a completed pregnancy - which may also trigger depression. But the APA report is less certain over the risks of multiple abortions.

Will anti-abortionists be convinced? Certainly not. But it may influence the uncommitted, including MPs who may be faced with attempts to change the law by requiring counselling for women seeking abortions.

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