The British Medical Journal (1-19-02) reported that women who abort a first pregnancy are at greater risk of subsequent long-term clinical depression than women who carry an unintended first pregnancy to term. An average of eight years after their abortions, married women were 138 percent more likely to be at high risk of clinical depression compared to similar women who carried their unintended first pregnancies to term. David C. Reardon, Ph.D., the study's lead author, says the study's findings are consistent with other recent research that has shown a four- to six-fold increased risk of suicide and substance abuse associated with prior abortion.