New research, led by Wendy Sheldon, the founder of Verge Research in Rye, New York, and including co-authors from Brown University, Georgia Tech, and the National Bureau of Economic Research, has found an association between state-level abortion bans and increases in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among adolescent girls. The same pattern was not found among similarly aged boys.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, several states implemented total abortion bans. To determine if these state-level abortion bans impacted the mental health of adolescents, the authors examined data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Surveys conducted in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2023 among female and male students in grades 9 to 12 at public high schools in 15 states. The authors compared trends in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among adolescents in the five states that had implemented abortion bans (Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas) with the 10 states that did not implement such bans during the study period (Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, and Pennsylvania).
Prior to the Dobbs ruling, trends in suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in all 15 states were similar. However, these trends diverged in 2023. In states that had implemented bans, the percentage of female students reporting suicidal ideation increased from 33 percent to 34 percent and the share reporting prior suicide attempts rose from 15 percent to 18 percent. Among adolescent girls in states that did not enact bans, suicidal ideation decreased from 33 percent to 29 percent and suicide attempts dropped from 12 percent to 11 percent. There were no corresponding changes among male students.
“Implementation of total abortion bans following the Dobbs decision represented abrupt, state-level policy changes, and our findings suggest these bans may function as a structural contributor to suicidality among female high school students,” the authors write. “This has clinical and systems-level implications. Identification of suicide risk factors is essential for prevention. Our findings underscore the importance of ensuring accessible suicide prevention and mental health services for female adolescents in affected states. Potential approaches include suicide risk screening in school and primary care settings, improving access to mental health services, and ensuring timely linkage to crisis intervention services. Finally, our findings also highlight the importance of considering adolescent mental health when developing and evaluating reproductive health policies.”
Dr. Sheldon is a graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master of social work degree from the University of Pennsylvania, a master of public health degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in demography and public affairs from Princeton University. Before establishing Verge in 2023, Dr. Sheldon taught at Brown University and the University at Buffalo.