The quality of abortion decisions and college students' reports of post-abortion emotional sequelae and abortion attitudes

College students in general, and men in particular, have been essentially i gnored in the post-abortion emotional sequelae literature. Therefore, the c urrent sample consisted of 63 college students (31 females and 32 males) wi th prior histories regarding abortion. The primary objective of the present investigation was to examine Various dimensions of abortion decisions (amb ivalence, regret,and comfort) along with emotional connection to the fetus as possible predictors of self-reported anxiety and depression. A secondary objective was to assess the effectiveness of different components of abort ion decisions and emotional connection to the fetus as predictors of aborti on attitudes. The results indicated that a sizable proportion of college me n and women do not take the abortion decision lightly. Furthermore, the qua lity of such decisions and emotional connection to the fetus may partially explain individual differences in post-abortion emotional sequelae. Implica tions of the findings are discussed.