Abortion and women's mental health: A 'gold standard' study that really isn't

Does abortion traumatize or "wound" many women? A major longitudinal study says probably not, BUT Annie Lowrey at the Atlantic overstates the case; 14 percent feeling sadness five years later is NOT a nothingburger. In addition, what all does "feel sadness" mean? Is it deep or light on depth? Persistent or fleeting on occurrence? And, two of three having few or no emotions about it means one in three did. And, there's other problems with her framing. What does "wound" mean? And, what percentage of women declined to participate? What percentage of women failed to complete all questions?

As someone in the great muddied middle, these things are also problematic. I support eliminating "waiting period" laws, not on the alleged ground that no women have sadness later, sadness that may even be regret. Rather, I support eliminating them on the grounds that women are autonomous and can, in theory, both think and emote through "playing it forward" before having an abortion.

If the Turnaway Study doesn't have more details itself, then being the "gold standard" is certainly relativistic and based on being the only such study. And, as you can see by me posting that second link, Turnaway doesn't have percentages on this themselves, nor answer the other questions about "sadness."

So, in my great muddied middle world, this is really a "silver standard" study.