A newly released study about the impact of abortion on American men finds 71 percent of men experienced “adverse changes” to their mental health following the loss of a child to abortion.
Results of the study, commissioned by Support After Abortion, a nonprofit focused on post-abortion healing education, found that of the 71 percent of men who suffered “adverse changes,” 83 percent said they “either sought after abortion help or said they could have benefited from talking to someone.”
Titled “Abortion’s Long-Term Negative Impact on Men” and released in April, the study also found slightly more than half of the men surveyed said they were “pro-choice,” yet 31 percent of “pro-choice” men experienced negative effects from an abortion.
Other key findings of the research include those in which 53 percent of the men said they “seldom to never attend religious services,” while 40 percent of those surveyed “prefer a religious healing program” after experiencing a loss of a child to abortion.
Greg Mayo, author of the study’s white paper and an admitted victim of “abortion loss” who wrote he “had no say in either direction,” explained the premise of the study in the executive summary:
With the pendulum swing in pregnancy decision-making from virtually no rights for women to complete autonomy for women, men lost any right to advocate for the children they helped conceive. Yet some men are deeply impacted by abortion, regardless of their personal views on abortion or whether or not they had a voice in the decision.
As perhaps expected, however, Mayo noted the “lack of healing resources for men and a lack of their preferred options for care.”
“This is the latest study to show that men mostly do not have a voice” in decisions about abortion, Mayo wrote, observing:
Guttmacher Institute, a leading researcher on reproductive rights, reports less than 1% of women’s most important reason was their partners’ or parents’ desire for them to have an abortion. In the longitudinal Turnaway Study of 1,000 women, 35 of women stated their partner wanting the abortion was a reason for their decision. And in Support After Abortion’s study of women and medication abortion, only 20% of women said their partner impacted the decision.
Similarly, research by Pew Research Center published in May 2022 found 72 percent of Americans somewhat agree that “the decision about whether to have an abortion should belong solely to the pregnant woman.”
Research for the current study was conducted by Oklahoma City-based ShapardResearch using a nationally representative study sampling 1,000 men over age 18 across the United States via online survey.
According to the study’s report, “100 men met the criteria of having personally experienced abortion at some time and participated in the study with a margin of error of +/- 9.18%.”
Mat Staver, chairman of Christian legal ministry Liberty Counsel, which reviewed the study, commented that the study shows that while abortion harms women and their unborn children, “it also harms men in incalculable ways.”
“These findings reveal how abortion breaks the hearts of men and confirms how our society largely ignores their circumstances,” Staver said. “Any society that favors abortion undermines its own men. Thankfully, there is healing and restoration available so men harmed by abortion can stand and be the protectors our children and families need.”
“Support After Abortion research shows that for seven out of ten men, abortion is a painful experience that can include emotional distress and lasting feelings of loss and grief,” Mayo summarized. “One man described his emotions as ‘Insurmountable guilt. Regret. Feeling like a horrible person.’ His story is not unlike those other men have shared. Their grief, a natural response to loss, is often invalidated.”
“Men perceive that their thoughts and feelings are dismissed or not valued, and many remain silently in pain,” he added. “The study shows that the majority of men want support, but don’t know where to go for help, indicating a need for greater awareness.”
“At the core of a man’s heart is the call to protect one’s family and to fight to preserve life when necessary,” Staver said. “But abortion has morally, socially, and spiritually eroded our culture putting masculinity under attack.”
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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]
Photo “Man and Woman” by JD Mason.
