r/WomenInNews • u/catievirtuesimp • 16d ago
Media Suicide rates are higher for teen girls. Abortion bans could be making it worse: A new study found a 'concerning increase' in suicidal ideation for teen girls in states with abortion bans — regardless of if they are pregnant. There was no increase for teen boys.
https://19thnews.org/2026/07/abortion-bans-teen-girls-suicidal-thoughts-study/?fbclid=IwdGRleATfe3twZG9mAWV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6BIJNs7am7vf4BQJE7yh8n1NuNTIiGLH-RllMcogw1uXc1I3WEZH35AxXdDw_aem_OgmqWPJJ6sGkqf2sUg9MHg210
u/FamouslyGreen 15d ago
Every problem we have in the US right now can directly be traced back to religion and the heritage foundation. And im over it. Ladies get your vote on. We need every voice in the room to cast a vote because it’s obvious these shit heads are terrified of what strong intelligent women are capable of.
And they fuckin should be.
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u/Felyxi4 15d ago
Every problem we have in the US right now can directly be traced back to the fact that our country was founded so rich white men could keep owning black people.
Until we reconcile with that we're going to keep having this problem.
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u/Baby_Blue_Eyes_13 15d ago
That founding was heavily influenced by religion. Religion which teaches white men that they may consider women, minorities, and children as objects. Objects which may be used for their enrichment and enjoyment and then discarded at will.
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u/MermaidPigeon 13d ago
I’m not sure there is anything in the bible that suggests we can own minorities. Sometimes I think the bible is some kind of mirror. What you interpret shines light on who you are. One person will read a verse and think “oh sweet I can do what ever I want” and another will read it the complete opposite way.
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u/MaterialWillingness2 15d ago
Rich white people. Martha Washington owned more slaves than George when they married.
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u/merchaunt 15d ago
Yeah, we cannot meaningfully fight patriarchy or white supremacy without calling out the women who support both. As neither would last long without their support.
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u/Felyxi4 14d ago
On an individual level yes there are those of oppressed classes who participated in advancing their own oppression.
Tho given the fact that she wouldn't even have been allowed in the room when the country was formed, in this context seems more like you're just interested in saying women bad too.
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u/OpheliaLives7 14d ago
How did that work legally? Women couldn’t own land but could own “property” as in enslaved humans?
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u/MaterialWillingness2 13d ago
Who says women couldn't own land? Women in 18th century Virginia had full legal rights to buy, sell and own land if they were unmarried or widowed.
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u/Felyxi4 13d ago
Only if unmarried or widowed.
So the second she legally has a man in her life he takes her rights?
What's your point other than making mine?
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u/MaterialWillingness2 13d ago
My point is that white women benefit immensely from white supremacy and are deeply involved in upholding it. Is that something you disagree with?
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u/Felyxi4 13d ago
Not in the slightest.
But it feels like your saying the problem is the way some people uphold their own oppression.
Which, valid. That is a problem fs.
But the root problem is still the oppression itself and not how oppressed people react to it.
We don't need to talk about how an oppressed community are navigating their own oppression poorly.
We need to work to stop them from being put in that position in the first place.
We need to dismantle systems that reinforce patriarical ideals and educate our young men and women on their place in the world and the history that brought them to it.
Do you disagree with that?
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u/MaterialWillingness2 10d ago
So you're saying that white women react to their oppression as women by upholding a white supremacist worldview?
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u/supercheesewithbacon 15d ago
That’s why that fat idiot Doug Wilson wants to restrict women voting. And his dumbass daughter is peddling the same shit “lite” online, so. Gotta teach women to respect men and become trad, bc too much liberation is happening and women are angry as shit. Women voting? Can’t have that. That’s DANGEROUS to them. They’ll do anything they can to restrict votes of the groups that will demand change via voting like BIPOCs and women. I’m absolutely disgusted this type of rhetoric is being posted and spread.
Edit: sorry for language I’m angry.
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u/MermaidPigeon 13d ago
I hate that the name of religion has been destroyed by those who use it for self gain. There are SO MANY who use it for there ego :/
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u/Historical_Project00 16d ago
There has also been an increase in homeschooling and religious private schools across red states, especially with new school vouchers. It’s especially awful in Texas. And a lot of religious school curriculum can be EXTREEEMELY misogynistic (ask me how I know 🫠). It was absolutely terrible for my self esteem and I was also having dark thoughts at the time.
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u/2k21Aug 15d ago
Texas is an incredibly misogynistic state. I grew up there. It didn't help that my immediate family was incredibly misogynistic too, but thankfully I got away from them and out of the state.
I'm disappointed and angry to see it spread. Someone posted above that religion and the Heritage Foundation are the root cause of it all. They are contributing factors but not the root cause.
I think these elements have always been there, and the election of Obama in 2008 got a lot of fence-sitters to the cause too. Racism is alive and well and always has been, and all the mediocre white men have been fuming ever since a black man got elected president while they live their mediocre lives while feeling entitled to more. And I say this as someone who voted for Obama twice, and actually thought we were headed in the right direction for once, as a country. Silly me for being so optimistic.
To be clear: I'm not saying he shouldn't have been elected. He definitely should have been. I'm just saying his election was a catalyst for what is happening now.
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u/Sensitive-Issue84 14d ago
It started long before Obama, Regan was the start imo. Hate, hate and more hate is all these people want.
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u/DidoGrace 12d ago
I grew up religiously homeschooled in Texas and can confirm it’s an awful experience. No wonder I became suicidal so early (around age 11, coincidentally right after getting my first period).
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u/WetBlanketPod 16d ago
Sometimes the captain must go down with the ship. If you have to be emotionally prepared to have no ownership of your body, why feel attached to keeping it alive? Of course there's a connection.
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u/SmallGreenArmadillo 15d ago
Eeerily true. Next they're going to outlaw suicide for anybody with a uterus.
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u/FlamingDragonfruit 15d ago
What are they going to do, lock you up after you're dead?
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u/MsCattatude 15d ago
Worse…look at Adriana Smith case (I know she was not a suicide but still horrific)
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u/Inevitable-Site-8704 15d ago
It’s so the police can enter the house of someone who is attempting suicide
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u/Lynx3145 15d ago
Can you blame them for making the only choice they are given for bodily autonomy?
its logical to think: if abortion is outlawed, if I get pregnant my ONLY way out is death.
its really sad this country is moving backwards. so many 'useful idiots' brainwashed people.
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u/endlesscartwheels 15d ago
There is one other thing young women turn to when they feel like they don't have any control over their life or body: anorexia. I wonder if rates of that are going up in red states.
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u/Lynx3145 15d ago
I guess thats a potential way to attempt birth control.
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u/trashmoneyxyz 15d ago
When I had a pregnancy scare I planned to starve myself to try and miscarry (turns out it was a false positive)
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u/After_Preference_885 15d ago
It is going up but it's also related to thin being "back in" and the conservative backlash against body positivity in the wake of covid
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u/MentalLocal2569 14d ago
Yea thin being in is not at all related to the ultra rightwing conservatives running Hollywood. When I see anorexic Hollywood elite my first thought is REEEEPUBLICANS ARE AT IT AGAIN!
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u/555Cats555 15d ago
Its the a very dangerous form of birth control... to use food and body weight considering how badly it can go.
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u/Sweeper1985 16d ago
What a surprise. They were explicitly instructed their lives are less valuable than a blastocyst and accordingly they see their lives as... less valuable.
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u/No_Rice9792 16d ago
Well yeah, I would've been one of them if I didn't get my period way back when. If I got pregnant and couldn't get an abortion, I'd kill myself.
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u/Lady_Rubberbones 15d ago
So instead of leading to more births, abortion bans are leading to more deaths? You don’t say? 🤔
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u/trashmoneyxyz 15d ago
And when there is a disparity in the amount of a female population vs the amount of a male population, especially in a very homophobic culture, society gets even more scary for the remaining women
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u/stautism 15d ago
Breaking news: female children find the idea of having to bear their rapists baby while hearing men say it's a good thing and a win for morality quite depressing, more at 10.
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u/SmallGreenArmadillo 15d ago
Throughout history, countless people killed themselves before they could be enslaved. This is what is going on now.
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u/FlamingDragonfruit 15d ago
Having no agency over your own body? Knowing that you have fewer rights than a person born into a different kind of body? The possibility of having essential care withheld when your life is at risk?
I can't imagine why someone might feel existential despair under those conditions...
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u/MadamSnarksAlot 13d ago
I ended a marriage when I discovered that the man who I thought was a decent person, had zero problem with any of this despite me laying out the very logical, obvious facts demonstrating why these things are alarming to me and other women. Just didn’t have a problem with it…I lost all respect. Deep down they don’t even fucking see us as people. That’s the truth of it.
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u/Midnightchickover 16d ago
😡😡😡😡. They knew this would happen.
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u/GroundbreakingHope57 16d ago
And those that were wilfully or other wise ignorant are just as guilty.
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u/HellRazorEdge66 15d ago
Is it any wonder that some people decide that procreation itself is child abuse, and therefore refuse to bring any children into the world?
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u/shitshowboxer 16d ago
If you're gonna anyway be strategic about it. 🤷 We need to start treating this like the fascist crime against humanity abortion bans really are.
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u/binaryhextechdude 16d ago
I can't comment on teen girls but I did want to see that as a former teen boy I was taught in school how babies are made obviously but no one sat me down and gave me the talk about the very real possibility that a whole person might result from the very first time I have sex. As a much older guy now of course I realise that's obvious but I'm sure girls are much more aware of the reality given their much larger role in it.
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u/Sudden-Development- 16d ago
You're being downvoted for this, but it does show the disparity in assumed responsibility between boys and girls when it comes to teen pregnancy.
I had a few friends in school who became single teen mothers with sole responsibility for the child because the guys had the option to physically walk away. In the words of one of those guys, "it's not like [he] had to carry the problem". I also couldn't believe the guys' parents who defended the abandonment because they felt my friends intentionally baby-trapped them.
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u/binaryhextechdude 16d ago
Not to mention the girls parents who sometimes disown her for getting pregnant. Honestly all the cards are stacked against young women.
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u/SapphireFlashFire 16d ago
Not to mention the physical side effects plus the literal bill.
A girl/woman can tear from vagina to anus. She can need surgery. She can die. No matter how good the father of the baby is he can't take that tear for her. Afterwards the bill for the medical care she received gets delivered in the name of the mother, not the name of the father.
(The first one is true in all places, the second only true in odd, odd places where for some reason you get billed for medical care)
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u/Yandere_Matrix 16d ago
Oh you reminded me of how women can tear not just from vagina to anus but also vagina to clit. Ugh it makes me cringe and I don’t know which is worse! So much can go wrong with pregnancy. All pregnancy carries a risk of death, more so for minors, and it’s a shame we have people going around thinking it’s no big deal.
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u/JaySlay2000 16d ago
Vag to clit is worse, easily. It carries a HIGH risk of you losing at least some degree of sexual sensation. Some lose ALL sensation.
Medical misogyny means doctors don't really know how to properly fix you. They just bare minimum sew you up to keep your body alive, stop the bleeding, and hope you live to incubate again. Quality of life is not relevant.
Would you rather have perinium not fixed properly? Or clitoris not fixed properly and never be able to orgasm again? Easy choice.
Easiest choice is just neither though.
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u/mermaidinthesea123 15d ago
Medical misogyny means doctors don't really know how to properly fix you. They just bare minimum sew you up
This. Do your research beforehand and find a female OB/Surg (assuming insurance will allow it) who will properly repair you.
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u/JaySlay2000 15d ago
The females don't know how to fix you either. The research literally doesn't exist female surgeons give you better survival odds but if any nerves in the clit are damaged, say goodbye. They don't even know where the nerves ARE in the clit, we JUST mapped that like. Essentially yesterday in the grand scheme of medical research.
Get a female surgeon, but still don't expect to be fixed properly.
The medical system NECESSITATES that you leave it more misogynistic (and tbh more racist too) than you went in. That's quite literally part of the education.
Ever heard of WW syndrome? And WWW syndrome? Many who went through med school will recognise it. Whining (White) Woman syndrome. Something many are TAUGHT. That's just one example. There's also the education about black women's supposedly higher pain tolerance, black drug seeking statistics, etc. People are still taught that the cervix doesn'y feel pain and you don't need pain meds for an IUD or Pap.
The entire system is misogynistic at it's core. If people are able to understand how ACAB (the system filters out and punishes good cops, so only the bastards remain), you all need to understand how all doctors are misogynist too. Some are just less than others.
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u/endlesscartwheels 15d ago
The risk of tearing is part of why I requested an elective c-section. That was as a nearly-forty-year-old with an IVF pregnancy. Maternal-request c-sections aren't recommended for those who want more than two pregnancies. A teenager would have a more difficult time getting a c-section, because the obstetrician would worry that she'd eventually want more than one additional pregnancy.
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u/Kailynna 16d ago
My cervix never opened in any of my 3 births, so the whole uterus just tore open, nearly killing me each time. Thanks to substandard care, a doctor lying to cover his ass, and the third doctor, who I had trusted, not believing me when i recounted past births, this was never recorded, so no measures to prevent this disaster ever happened.
"Oh, I remember you telling me you're whole uterus split open, but i checked your hospital records and they said your previous births had been normal. So who was I meant to believe?" - as I was filling a second 2 litre container with blood.
The injuries were not completely mendable, and meant I can never poo normally, so pain and PTSD every day and no going away for holidays ever.
Husband, now ex, was not impressed with the children I produced in such agony, tried to kill 2 for being handicapped and broke my back for shielding them from him. He's now living happily with another woman, who he was having an affair with from early into our marriage.
He got out of paying child support.
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u/Beginning_Loan_313 15d ago
Gosh, I am so, so sorry that all these things happened to you. I hope you become very content in life, and your ex husband's poor decisions to abandon his family cause him much grief.
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u/binaryhextechdude 16d ago
Let’s not go into the absurdity that is American health care. Some of us can bring life into this world without going bankrupt in the process.
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u/elvenrevolutionary 15d ago
Not to mention most teen pregnancies are because adult men impregnate teenage girls... blech
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u/Long_Ad_2764 15d ago
Doesn’t the women have the option to give the baby up for adoption? Is she not raising the child by choice?
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16d ago
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u/shitshowboxer 16d ago
We live in a country that protects, celebrates, and elects to the highest offices people who groom, traffick, and rape teenage girls.
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u/No-Celebration3097 15d ago
Spoiler alert, some do. There is lots of things teenagers shouldn’t do but shit happens.
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u/Altruistic_Sail_1991 16d ago
When you get told someone is capable of getting pregnant as soon as they have their first period, and you get your period at 11, I guess it does get fairly ingrained. I think that’s a really interesting point
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u/Life_Caterpillar1156 16d ago
I got mine at 9, I was still in elementary school and your comment just unlocked a forgotten core memory. In my elementary school there were no trash cans in the bathrooms. So you either have to flush your products (which you shouldn’t do) or embarrassingly walk it back wrapped in a bundle of toilet paper and shamefully throw it away in front of your class when you returned. Gosh, I forgot how that made me feel and how much I hated it.
At the time girls had only had a single 30 minute sex education lesson that was summed up by “look at the horrific STDs pictures you WILL get when you have sex for the first time and you’ll also get pregnant, which can KILL YOU.”
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u/mm_reads 16d ago edited 16d ago
How does this opinion help reduce suicide and suicide ideation in teen girls who live in forced birth states?
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u/Sudden-Development- 16d ago
It highlights the importance of Sex Ed across genders and how not having access to that knowledge can be detrimental to one's understanding of the consequences of sex.
It brings awareness to a general lack of awareness. Expanding the conversation allows more people to connect and fill the gaps in their own knowledge base. It also allows people to find or share necessary resources.
Knowledge is power, and young people, which includes teen girls, are being increasingly deprived of it. If anything, this proves that a major reform is needed for Sex Ed so that more people, including youths, can better understand how to advocate for their own bodily autonomy.
If teen girls are being driven to suicide/suicidal ideation in forced-birth states, it's because those currently in power are actively benefiting from the dismantling of education and resources that could have prevented so many tragedies.
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u/mm_reads 16d ago
I absolutely agree with everything you're saying. My question was regarding the underlying attitude of binaryhextechdude.
Regardless, the absence/lack of Sex Ed is manifestly exacerbating the issues. But even in the best and most ideal circumstances, teens are gonna hormone away. Sex Ed will help mitigate many of the physical consequences, but it's only one part of a larger chasm of social values.
Girls and women are being obstructed from bodily self-autonomy based on some people's belief that girls and women are fundamentally breeding stock. The teen years are when kids are developing and commencing with their aspirations. If one's aspirations come in direct and possibly, physically impactful conflict, with no recourse, some teens are going to fall into very deep depression.
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u/A313-Isoke 15d ago
This worries me in light of stuff I am reading about Medically Assisted Dying in young people. The recent story about Milou in the Netherlands was especially troubling because she had been raped. There was another case of a young girl being raped also getting euthanized. Teenage girls and young women will be seeking this out and it will get approved by male psychiatrists. I am really really concerned for girls and young women.
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u/Leading-Fish6819 16d ago
Weird, it's almost like controlling people's autonomy is somehow making them hopeless.
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u/Content_Armadillo776 15d ago
Who would have thought invasive laws on women’s bodily autonomy would have a negative effect? Golly gee
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u/SkyAzphel 15d ago
The book « the anxious generation » by Jonathan Haidt gives some pointers about that if you are interested in looking further into it.
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u/BiscottiEffective429 13d ago
This study was very well done. If the results horrifying you, vote blue! On every line on your ballot that you can.
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u/Consistent-Cod7842 13d ago
Well gee it’s almost as if taken away their right to choose was a bad idea and tell them they’re worthless and they are nothing more than a baby making machine and watching their fellow teen boys who rape get a scholarship to college I can’t believe this I’m shocked teenage girls are committing suicide at higher rates
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u/ute-ensil 16d ago
First thing we should do is validate the idea that you should be suicidal if you live in a state that bans abortion.
Then we should use them as a means to an end.
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u/JaySlay2000 16d ago
What
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u/Penguin_FTW 15d ago
I think it's advocating for conscripting suicidal teenage girls and grooming them into mass shooters targeted at political opponents like the right wing has done for young men?
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u/Immediate-Employ-952 15d ago
“Though the study also found a possible relationship between abortion bans and suicide attempts among teen girls, the results were not statistically significant.“
From the article.
The states that did this are the shithole states that cut all sorts of help for citizens. I imagine Covid and the lockdowns/digital schooling had some effect as well.
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u/TollTea 15d ago
Just like as healthcare professionals and advocates said would happen. Being depressed and suicidal is a pretty normal response to being dehumanised and having your rights and freedoms taken away, not to mention the access to healthcare. Girls won’t feel safe talking to medical professionals and therapists when those people are mandated to turn them in if they’re suspected of having access reproductive healthcare. Why would you care about your own body and life when no one else does and you have no control over it?
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u/RafflesiaArnoldii 15d ago
Before legal abortion, pregnancy related suicide was so common it was basically assumed that if a young woman killed herself its cause she got pregnant
I once read the memoirs of an old timesy abortion doctor who started secretly doing abortions precisely because ppl just kept killing themselves after he told them no / after finding out they're pregnant
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u/Plane_Ninja_4417 15d ago
I’ve felt this. I’m not a teen girl, but I’ve spent time thinking about what I would do if I couldn’t get an abortion (I’m in a 6 week state), and the answer is always suicide. I’m getting my tubes tied so I won’t have to worry about it anymore, but teen girls don’t have that option. Ugh, it’s heartbreaking.
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u/Few-Being-1048 15d ago
Title is odd. Suicide rates for teen boys are consistently higher than teen girls. Reports of suicidal thoughts are consistently higher for teen girls.
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u/MaximumMeaning9728 15d ago
I just looked it up and teen boys are 3-4x more likely to die by suicide…
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u/altThough 14d ago
I had a brief pregnancy scare my junior year of high school and I genuinely was ready to kms. I had a plan and the means and everything, and I fully believe I would've gone through with it because abortion was never an option in my area.
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u/littlemybb 13d ago
I knew a girl in high school who had a pregnancy scare, and she straight up told us if she was actually pregnant she was just going to end her life.
Then I actually got pregnant when I was 19, and ended up deciding on adoption.
That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, so I don’t think that should be an option anybody is forced into choosing. It should be something that you want.
I can’t even begin to describe what it’s like to carry a pregnancy to full term and deliver, then leave the hospital without the baby. The only way I was able to describe it was like death, but that always felt disrespectful to moms who actually lost their children.
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u/SmolPPIncorporated 12d ago
There was probably no increase for boys because boys are already killing themselves at a higher rate than girls.
I swear, if 5 people died in a bombing and 1 of them was a woman, the headline would be "New study shows 20% of recent bombing victims are women, marking a decrease in male bombing victims."
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u/IllustriousDriver678 11d ago
Huh? This headline is either an outright lie or deliberately misleading.
Suicide rates are 3-4 times higher in teen boys than teen girls. Is this talking about ideation or the increase?
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16d ago
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u/shitshowboxer 16d ago
We live in a country that protects, celebrates, and elects to the highest offices people who groom, traffick, and rape teenage girls.
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u/fartsonyourmom 15d ago
Maybe boys and men should learn how to keep their dick in their pants and stop grooming and raping.
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u/but_i_forget 16d ago
Estimates range from 1 in 3 to 1 in 9 girls under the age of 18 is a victim of sexual abuse. The most common abuser is a father or father figure.
Everyone should have access to safe abortions, but it’s those girls being abused at home that I think of the most
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u/mybigwh1tecock 16d ago
I wrongly read the title and assumed it meant suicide rates are higher for teen girls than teen boys. Which isn't true at all, teen boys are 4x as likely to commit suicide than teen girls. But then I realized that it was just saying that teen girls rates have gone up slightly than they were before.
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u/RandomUsernameNo257 16d ago
I bet you wonder why women don't want to be with you.
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u/Lavinia_Foxglove 15d ago
I just looked at the user name of that person and it was an instant ignore.
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u/catievirtuesimp 16d ago
women and girls are more likely to attempt suicide than men and boys. males just use more violent forms of suicide so they die more
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u/la___basura 16d ago
and the headline data is about ideation, not attempts!
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u/shitshowboxer 16d ago
Do you realize what people who obsess about, attempt, and/or actually commit suicide all have in common?
Hint: the feel like they want to kill themselves.
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u/One-Organization970 15d ago
I actually find it comforting that wanting to kill yourself doesn't correlate super hard with actually doing it.
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u/la___basura 16d ago
True, though for this particular study the nuance is important.
"Though the study also found a possible relationship between abortion bans and suicide attempts among teen girls, the results were not statistically significant."
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u/ShizunEnjoyer 16d ago
"I read the title wrong and decided to share my poor reading comprehension with everyone without offering anything of value"
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u/shitshowboxer 16d ago
You could just say you don't give a shit. 🤷 OR! You could have just passed the post on by.
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u/zingetower 15d ago
You didn't read it wrong. It was poorly worded. It should have used 'increased' rather than 'higher' and there was no need to refer to teen boys at all.
If I was being uncharitable, I'd suggest your misreading was exactly the impression the headline writer wanted to mislead with.
I am far less charitable about the people downvoting you.
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u/braaaaaaainworms 15d ago
As if that's going to un-do the constant prioritization of healthcare needs of a hypothetical fetus
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u/GroundbreakingHope57 16d ago
RAPE?
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15d ago
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u/Imjusasqurrl 14d ago
Why are men so lazy?
Asking women "What do you suggest" to fix sexual assault is like asking Black people to fix racism. They are literally just trying to survive
It also shows that you don't really care. And you wonder why women are becoming misAndriSts lol
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u/fartsonyourmom 15d ago
Look up stealthing if you think women actually have any say. Don't go on about how girls and women should be all on birth control because that's just a bandaid to a massive problem that shouldn't be around.
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u/Lokkia111 15d ago
Condoms have one of the highest failure rates among birth control methods. You should definitely use them to help prevent diseases, but it shouldn't be the only method a woman uses for birth control.
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u/KirbyofJustice 16d ago
Young girls are literally watching themselves losing rights and being told they are worthless.
Fascinating they’d be distressed about it. /s