Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The Family Research Council will host a discussion forum on Thursday featuring top researchers from across the country who will discuss how abortion adversely affects women's mental health. They'll point to key studies proving the abortion-mental health link and discuss the recent APA report.

The researchers include Dr. Priscilla Coleman of Bowling Green State University and Catherine Coyle, RN, Ph.D., of the Alliance for Post-Abortion Women.

In addition, David Reardon, Ph.D., a top post-abortion researcher from the Elliot Institute and clinical psychologist Vincent M. Rue, Ph.D., from the Institute for Pregnancy Loss will also appear.

They will discuss data from numerous studies that have exposed the associations between abortion and mental health, and substance abuse disorders.

In 2005, Dr. David Fergusson of the Christchurch School of Medicine & Health Sciences in New Zealand, conducted a study that found that having an abortion as a young woman raises the risk of developing mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

Some 42 percent of the women who had abortions had experienced major depression within the last four years. That's almost double the rate of women who never became pregnant. The risk of anxiety disorders also doubled.

According to the study, women who had abortions were twice as likely to drink alcohol at dangerous levels and three times as likely to be addicted to illegal drugs.

An August study from Norway shows a link between abortion and mental health problems such as depression.

The authors make the link clear in the conclusion of the abstract: "Young adult women who undergo induced abortion may be at increased risk for subsequent depression."

Another study in August in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology found 30 percent of women who purchase the abortion drug mifepristone on the Internet experience depression and negative feelings accompanying the abortion.

Despite the research, the American Psychological Association, which supports legalized abortion, released a report claiming abortion causes no mental health problems.

The FRC announcement about the discussion indicates the researchers will present "the body of research the American Psychological Association failed to assess in its recent report on abortion and mental health."

The event takes place Thursday at the FRC headquarters in Washington.

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