Is Having an Unplanned Birth Worse for Teens Than Abortion?
Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in The Post-Abortion Review in 2006. With the recent news of a rash of pregnancies among girls at a high school in Massachusetts, it seems everyone is agreeing that teen pregnancy is a problem. But are teens who abort better off than teens who carry an “unwanted” pregnancy to term? Not according to a study published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence. The study found that adolescent girls who abort unintended pregnancies are five times more likely to seek subsequent help for psychological and emotional problems compared to their peers who carry “unwanted” pregnancies to term.1 Dr. Priscilla Coleman, a research psychologist at Bowling Green State University, also found that adolescents who had abortions were over three times more likely to report subsequent trouble sleeping and nine times more likely to report subsequent marijuana use. The results were compiled after examining 17 other control variables, like prior mental hea
