Category: Reasons for abortion

According to statistics, money is a factor in most abortions. Most people who abort do so at least in part because they feel they can’t afford to raise a child. In fact, in one poll, 73% of women having abortions gave this as a reason.

These women might have chosen to have their babies if they had had the financial support they needed.

Here is one example from an article in the New York Times.

The article says:

“Leah, 26, said money was a factor in her decision to have an abortion… she works in a clothing boutique, a job that she said did not pay enough to support a child….”

According to Leah:

“I always said I would never, ever have an abortion. I probably will regret it.”

She saw an ultrasound of her child, but she was only 5 weeks along, too early for the ultrasound to show detail. The child, at this point, is too small and isn’t developed enough to look like a baby on the ultrasound screen.

Leah says:

“If I saw an actual fetal baby on the ultrasound, I wouldn’t have been able to go through with it.”

Of course, Leah’s baby already had a heartbeat and a developing brain – he or she was a human being, regardless of what he or she looked like.

After her abortion, Leah said:

“I thought I’d be crying. I feel goofy now, but not in a bad way. I feel relieved more than anything. I know I’ll never forget it, but I’d rather do that than have a child I can’t take care of.”

Many women feel relief right after their abortions. After all, they’ve just gone through surgery and it’s now over. The “problem” has been taken care of – or so they think. All too often, depression, regret, grief, and guilt surface later.

On Medium, I wrote a post about poverty and how it drives abortion rates, and possible ways to solve the problem.

JOHN LELAND “Under Din of Abortion Debate, an Experience Shared Quietly” New York Times SEPT. 18, 2005

One woman says why she had an abortion:

“At the time I was in a relationship with a man who was black, and the pregnancy was the result of contraceptive failure.

The relationship was over by the time I found out about the pregnancy, I had no way of supporting a child, and I knew that if I went ahead, a mixed-race child was very unlikely to be adopted.

I discovered I was pregnant fairly early on, but I was just under 12 weeks when I had the procedure and I have never regretted it.”

Martha Jensen Abortion: Information and One’s Own Journey (2020)

A woman from India gave the following reason for having an abortion:

“When I became pregnant for the second time, my husband injured his leg in an accident. He consulted an astrologer, who said that the (unborn) child may be inauspicious and suggested that we terminate the pregnancy. My in-laws and husband compelled me by saying, “Is your unborn baby’s life worth more than your husband’s?”

P Balasubramanian, TK Sundari Ravindran and US Mishra “Induced Abortion: A Study of Rural Tamil Nadu” in Leela Visaria and Vimala Ramachandran Abortion in India: Ground Realities (Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2007) 268 – 269

In a research study, a woman talks about her pregnancy that was ended by abortion. She deliberately did not use contraception and got pregnant:

“I used to think it would be nice to have my own little baby and I really loved this man. But I didn’t think marriage would be quite the same. But having a baby would be great.… When I found I was pregnant, I was very happy. [Smiles and laughs]

[Why abortion?] I was happy at first, when I got pregnant. I knew it would be a love baby. However, I hadn’t really thought everything yet. Then my roommate started getting me sensible. How could I feed this poor little thing? How could I raise the baby all by myself? I couldn’t run my own life, let alone a baby’s. I began to realize there was no way I could support the baby.”

Paul Sachwev Sex, Abortion and Unmarried Women (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1993) 117

The percentages of abortions done for different reasons:

AVERAGE ANNUAL ABORTIONS, 1981 to 1990 1,550,000

To save the mother’s life or health 0.13%

For rape and incest 0.07%

For fetal birth defects 0.24%

For girls under 15 years old 1.00%

For women over 40 years old 1.30%

Total ‘hard cases’ 2.74%

Non-Medically Indicated Abortions 97.26%

Source:

United States Bureau of Commerce, Department of the Census. National Data Book and Guide to Sources, Statistical Abstract of the United States. 1990, 110th edition. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. Table 101, “Legal Abortions, By Selected Characteristics: 1973 to 1985.” Also: Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) annual reports.

Kori, 26, who was having her third abortion, asked to watch the procedure on the ultrasound monitor:

“It was O.K. to watch. Once you had your mind made up to do it, you just suck it up and go with it.”

JOHN LELAND “Under Din of Abortion Debate, an Experience Shared Quietly” New York Times SEPT. 18, 2005

A study on abortion from England said:

“Having surveyed vast numbers of reports on unplanned pregnancy, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists concluded that a pregnancy was particularly likely to end in abortion “if it would force the woman to abandon her plans for herself, or if she lacks the income, housing and personal support that she needs to cope with the child.”

Royal College of Obstetricians Gynecologists “Report of the RCOG Working Party on Unplanned Pregnancy” (London: RCOG, 1991) 10

Quoted in Ann Furedi Unplanned Pregnancy: Your Choices (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996) 67

Furedi is the director of a chain of abortion clinics in England.