Abortion study

de Edmund Payne, Malkah T. Notman, Arthur Kravitz, Radcliffe College. Henry A. Murray Research Center

This study examines the psychological outcomes of therapeutic abortion during the period immediately preceding the U.S. Supreme Court decision invalidating restrictive abortion laws. The sample was drawn from women requesting abortions at a large urban hospital in the northeast. The participants were interviewed by a psychiatrist before the abortion, 24 hours after the procedure, and at six weeks and six months postabortion. One hundred and two women participated in the study, 84 of whom participated in all four interviews. Background data available includes demographic information, marital history, data on the parents and spouse, and emotional and medical history. Extensive clinical interviews were conducted at each of the four sessions. These covered the following topics: history of contraception, conception, and pregnancy; reasons for seeking abortion; ambivalence; past medical and emotional history; sexual behavior; object relationships; dreams; doubt, guilt, anger, shame, and general mood states; predictions; diagnostic formulations; and changes in activities and life situation of the subject. Participants also completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) at the first and fourth testing times, and the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and Symptoms Rating Scale (SRS) at all four testing times. Some participants also completed the scales for femininity, socialization, and modernity from the California Personality Inventory (CPI) at the first and fourth meetings. Copies of all paper data are available; however they must be deidentified before they can be used. Coding sheets and computer-accessible data are immediately available. The Murray Center also holds doctor's reports of initial interviews with approximately 2,300 additional patients who requested therapeutic abortions between 1969 and 1974.