Nearly 40% of Women Suffer Severe Grief for Years after Abortion, Miscarriage: Study

Emily Mangiaracina : Dec 18, 2025
LifeSiteNews.com

"I have known many women who have had an abortion, and indeed they still suffer the guilt and regret, though most of these women know the forgiveness of God in their lives. I do think the sorrow suffered from an abortion, knowing that you actually killed your child is very different from the sense of mourning women endure from a miscarriage." -Monica Miller, Veteran pro-life activist and Director of Citizens for a Pro-Life Society

[LifeSiteNews.com] Nearly 40 percent of women who have suffered pregnancy loss, either through abortion or miscarriage, report continuing intense grief even 20 years afterward, according to a recently published study. (Image: Pexels)

The remarkable finding comes from a study of pregnancy loss grief published on Monday, which randomly surveyed American women in their early 40s. The study categorized post-abortive women according to the degree to which they wanted or accepted their abortion.

The highest percentage of women reported that the abortion was accepted but inconsistent with their values (35.5%), followed by women who wanted their abortion (29.8%), women who did not want their abortion (22.0%), and women who were coerced into getting an abortion (12.7%).

The 70.2 percent of women who reported the abortion as inconsistent with their values, unwanted, or coerced had significantly higher risk of prolonged intense grief, known as prolonged grief disorder (PGD) or complicated grief. It is "marked by a failure to transition from acute grief to integrated grief ... and may negatively affect physical health, relationships, and daily functioning," according to the study.

Women who were coerced into abortion had the highest risk of PGD, at 53.8 percent, and women who reported they wanted their abortions had the lowest risk, at 13.9 percent.

A whopping 39 percent of the women with any kind of pregnancy loss reported that "the worst of their negative feelings persist an average of 20 years after their loss," highlighting the need to educate women on the mental health risks of abortion... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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