Some aspects of new research from Otago University into the impact of abortion on mental health are being questioned by pro-choice campaigners.
The study has been reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
It finds that nearly 90 percent of respondents believed they were right to decide to have an abortion, while two percent believed they had made the wrong decision.
Abortion Law Reform Association president Dame Margaret Sparrow says it is an important piece of research which refutes some anti-abortion claims that abortion is dangerous because regrets will lead to mental health problems. She says it is important to note the report does not link abortion itself with mental health problems, but rather distress about the abortion collected retrospectively.
However, Dame Sparrow says some of the report's conclusions overreach the data.
