Pro-choice and anti-abortion groups are taking different slants on the results of a New Zealand into abortion and mental health.
The study, led by Otago University's Professor David Fergusson, has been reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
It contained good news for supporters of safe and accessible abortion, but some of its conclusions overreached the data, Abortion Law Reform Association president Dame Margaret Sparrow said.
The good news was the report's refutation of anti-abortion claims that large numbers of women regretted their abortions, she said.
The study found that "nearly 90 percent stated that the decision to have an abortion was the correct one, and only 2 percent reported that they believed the decision to be incorrect".
On the negative side, Dame Margaret said there were major concerns at what the report said about the crucial question of the impact of continuing with an unwanted pregnancy.
"Here, the report fudges an important distinction: In claiming that continuing an unwanted pregnancy is linked to fewer mental health problems, the authors appear to include only women who chose to continue their pregnancies, not women who were forced to do so because they could not obtain an abortion."
Therefore it was hard to see how the authors could question the legality of abortions carried out on the grounds of mental health, Dame Margaret said.
Brendan Malone, from Family Life International NZ, said the report was just one of several new studies which highlighted the fact that women were not receiving all of the facts when they sought out an abortion in New Zealand.
He cited a Canadian study, published in September, which showed women who had an abortion in the first or second trimester had a 36 percent increased risk of later having a premature baby, and women who had undergone more than one abortion had a 93 percent risk of later having a premature baby.
"Counselling provided to women seeking out abortions is so woefully inadequate that it is practically non-existent," Mr Malone said.
"In the vast majority of cases, abortion `counselling' in New Zealand merely consists of ticking a series of boxes, and women are very rarely, if ever, informed of the scientifically established risks that they will be exposing themselves to, and the support that is available to them to pursue alternatives to abortion."
Mr Malone said one of the consistent themes his group's post-abortion counselling team heard was that women were never informed of all the risks and alternatives available to them before opting for an abortion.
"Tragically, these same women also state that they probably would have chosen not to abort their babies had they received proper counselling about the risk factors, and the other options that were open to them."
Mr Malone said pro-abortion lobbyists liked to throw the word "choice" around.
"But how can we honestly claim that women choosing abortion are making a free and informed decision when they haven't been properly advised about the risks of having an abortion, and the alternatives available to them."
