Abortion and Mental Health: Short-Term Distress, Long-Term Recovery

Sara Abrahamsson () and Mara Barschkett ()
Additional contact information
Sara Abrahamsson: Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH)
Mara Barschkett: University of Bonn

No 18425, IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER

Abstract: Abortion remains a highly contested issue in women’s health. Using Norwegian administrative data from a setting with legal and accessible abortion, we estimate the causal effect of abortion on mental health. Exploiting variation in age-at-abortion within a stacked difference-in-differences design, we find a temporary increase in mental health–related GP visits that dissipates within one to two years. Among women without children, mental health improves in the medium term, along with changes in family dynamics and subsequent childbirth. An alternative matching approach comparing women with and without abortions confirms these findings. We find no evidence of persistent mental health deterioration.

Keywords: abortion; mental health; women's health; age at abortion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I10 I12 J13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp18425.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp18425

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from IZA Network @ LISER Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mark Fallak ().