Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the mental health of women of (a) experiencing an unplanned pregnancy and birth and (b) having an abortion.
The Department commissioned a multi-professional review of abortion and mental health following a recommendation from the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee in 2007. The report of the evidence-based review, Induced Abortion and Mental Health: A Systematic Review of the Mental Health Outcomes of Induced Abortion, including their prevalence and associated factors, was published in December 2011.
A copy of the review report is available at:
http://www.aomrc.org.uk/publications/reports-guidance/induced-abortion-mental-health-1211/