[Psychological alterations following induced abortion (author's transl)]

Based on a statistical survey of international literature on 28 psychiatric-psychological follow-up examinations after legal abortion (1948-1974), the following findings can be regarded as reasonably certain: 4%-9% of chronic, mainly depressive faulty developments; 15%-24% of slight, transitory disturbance reactions. The more individually an induced abortion is accounted for and the less there is influence by external regulations, and the better assimilation. The counter-proof: women whose desire for legal abortion had been declined and who carried their child to full term, later on reacted with psychological disturbances of similar intensity. Hence it may be inferred: women with a labile mental structure and unstable conditions of living will in the face of unwanted pregnancy most likely react with disturbances at any rate - whether they carry to full term or not.