Women who receive abortions may suffer adverse mental health effects, a group of British psychiatrists claims, and some anti-abortion advocates are declaring the study a victory for their cause.

Although the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the evidence for a link between induced abortions and mental health risks is inconclusive, it did not rule out the possibility of a connection in its study.

The college, which is the professional and educational body for psychiatrists in the United Kingdom and Ireland, is urging physicians to perform full-psychiatric assessments of women seeking abortions, at least until further review of the facts has been done.

“The study confirmed what we know to be true,” said Janet Morana, associate director of Priests for Life. “Many of these women after their abortions suffer greatly, both physically and mentally.”

Morana is the co-founder of Silent No More, a campaign that encourages women to give public and online testimonies of their regrets after having an abortion. Men are also welcome to give testimonies regretting their “lost fatherhood,” she said.

“When [women] go to the abortion clinic they’re told this is a simple procedure,” said Morana. “Unfortunately, women will tell you that after their abortion they felt that something was terribly wrong. They realized they killed their babies.”

The Royal College of Psychiatrists’s statement specifically encouraged informed consent for women considering abortion. Informed consent, however, may be harmful if it is an impersonal requirement of all abortion procedures, the statement said.

NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts Executive Director Andrea Miller said medical and psychiatric communities agree there is no definitive indication that women who receive abortions suffer adverse mental health effects.

Miller said she recommends women showing signs of abortion-related mental disorders and women who have pre-existing psychiatric disorders receive appropriate care and support.

“Health care providers need to personalize the care, pay attention to the specifics of what’s in front of them in terms of their patients and act accordingly,” she said.

Mandating that women get specific pieces of information before their procedure regardless of their circumstances may cause unnecessary alarm toward aspects of abortion that may not apply to every situation, Miller said.

American studies have not been able to clarify the correlation between abortions and mental health either.

The American Psychological Association is currently “updating” their information on the abortion-mental health link according to its website, and the most recent abortion position statement posted on the website of the American Psychiatric Association is from 1977.

Negative psychological effects of abortion may stem from possible cultural stigma instead of internally seeded regret, according to a study published through the APA.

The article, “Abortion as stigma: Cognitive and emotional implications of concealment,” published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 1999, suggests women who hide their abortion procedures have trouble dealing with the secret.

“Both suppression and intrusive thoughts, in turn, were positively related to increases in psychological distress over time,” said the authors in the journal abstract.

Diana Philip, interim executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, said the extent of psychiatric evaluation performed in the United States is an assessment made by the medical staff when a woman first comes in to an abortion clinic.

Every woman undergoing an abortion may come back for a follow-up evaluation three weeks after the procedure, and most women do return, Philip said.

“A good majority of [women] know exactly what they’re doing and are very well informed,” Philip said. “It’s those patients that come to us that seem to be wavering and seem to think that this may not be in their best interest that we will ask them to take more time and not serve them that day.”