There was a 1977 study by sociologist Mark K Zimmerman, “Passage through Abortion: the Personal and Social Reality Women’s Experiences.”
The study was cited in David C Reardon Aborted Women: Silent No More (Westchester, Illinois: Crossway books, 1987)
The study was done with cooperation from two abortion clinics, Zimmerman sent letters to women seeking abortions. 6 to 10 weeks after her abortion, Zimmerman interviewed the patients. The study excluded women who had a previous abortion, women who had a second or third trimester abortion, and the samples were handpicked by the clinic workers to avoid people who are already displaying signs of being upset, guilty, or extremely ambivalent.
Even so, the results showed that women had a hard time with their abortions.
95% of the time the male partner, played a central role in the abortion decision. 80% of the time, he supported abortion as the decision and only opposed it 20% of the time. 20% of the men insisted on an abortion even when the woman’s initial decision was to continue the pregnancy. (122)
Over two thirds of the women stated that they had “no choice” or had been “forced” to have an abortion (193)
30% told the interviewer that there had been a strong desire to keep the baby, but they felt that circumstances did not allow it.
50% of the time, the abortion was quickly followed by a disruption or termination of the relationship with the man.
70% of the women expressed disapproval of abortion, seeing it is deviant and immoral. However, they saw themselves as forced by others, by their circumstances, or by society at large and attempted to deny responsibility for what they believed was an immoral act – 70% of those aborted women felt forced to compromise their own values and ideals.
No specific questions were asked about the unborn baby, to keep from upsetting the sample. But 25% of the woman volunteered the aborted fetus was a life, person, or human being.
Only 15% maintain that the fetus was not a person or human life.
Six weeks after the abortion, 48% described themselves as “disturbed by the abortion.”
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