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Abortion for fetal anomaly |
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One of the signatories, Professor Patricia Casey, reported in the Irish Independent on 14 May 07, “A recent study from London (Davies 2005) comparing those having abortion for fetal anomaly in the first and second trimester found that after one year, 32% met criteria for depression and 41% for post-traumatic stress disorder and concluded ‘psychological morbidity following termination of pregnancy for fetal anomaly is prevalent and persistent.’ ”
“A different approach was taken in a study also published in 2005 in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. It compared the psychological outcome after two different methods of abortion for fetal anomaly and followed the women for one year.
“By 12 months 20-27% were suffering with depression and 73-86% were still grieving, while another study, again published in 2005 from a German centre, compared those who had abortions two weeks previously with those whose pregnancy termination had occurred two to seven years earlier. They speculated that the degree of distress would be higher, in the more recent group, but to their surprise no difference was found in the extent of distress between the two groups.”
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