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 Reasons and Risks 
Reasons Why Women Have Abortions
For many women, abortion appears to be a pressured pragmatic
response to a pregnancy, rather than an affirmative action in her life,
which is consistent with her highest and best aspirations.(1)
Labour may be induced and a pregnancy terminated in cases of foetal
abnormality or where there is serious risk to the health or life of the
mother. However, other reasons women give for abortions
include:
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pregnancy was the result of casual or unwelcome sex
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relationship broken up before or since pregnancy discovered
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unsupported by spouse or partner
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feeling pressured or co-erced
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lack of financial or material security
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lack of information
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very young and feels not ready for the responsibility of a child
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the pregnancy is untimely or unplanned
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prior abortions
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use of abortion as back-up contraception
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existing large family
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middle aged
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social or lifestyle reasons
Many women have an abortion out of fear and desperation. The woman
considering abortion doesn’t feel autonomous, but enmeshed in
relationships which bind and constrain her decision. “I let other
people take charge of my life because I felt out of control”(2) That
abortion is a woman’s “choice” is in many cases questionable. Many who
come for help afterwards, express the sense they ultimately felt they
had little or no choice, when weighing up the stresses and anticipated
losses for them in their relationships and life.
Research studies show that women do not see any “good” resulting from
an unplanned pregnancy. Instead they must weigh what they perceive as
three “evils”, namely motherhood, adoption and abortion. Unplanned
motherhood, represents a threat so great to modern women that it is
perceived as equivalent to “death itself.” While a woman may rationally
understand this is not her own literal death, her emotional,
subconscious reaction to carrying the child to term is that her life
will be “over.” (2)
Many women have developed a self-identity that simply does not include
being a mother, and some hold to their right to regulate reproduction
so strongly that the sudden intrusion of motherhood is often perceived
as a complete loss of control over their present and future selves, and
this can paralyse their ability to think more rationally and
realistically. Abortion then becomes a matter self-preservation.
Adoption is often regarded as the most “evil” of the three options, as
it is often perceived as a kind of double death. First, the perceived
death of self, as the woman would have to accept motherhood by carrying
the baby to term. A woman may imagine herself being a ‘bad’ mother if
she were to give her own child away to strangers. The second perceived
death is the death of the child “through abandonment” with accompanying
worries about the chance of her child being abused, the uncertainty of
the child’s future, and about the possibility of the child returning to
intrude on her own life many years later. A woman with an unplanned or
unwanted pregnancy seeks a sense of resolution to her crisis, and in
her mind, adoption leaves the situation most unresolved, with
uncertainty and guilt as far as she can see for both herself and her
child.(3)
The terrible miscalculation of women is that abortion can make them
“un-pregnant”, that it will restore them to who they were before the
crisis. But a woman is never the same once she is pregnant, whether the
child is kept, adopted or aborted. Abortion may be a kind of
resolution, but it is usually not the one the woman most deeply longs
for, nor will it even preserve her sense of self.
Many women say after an abortion that they would have kept their baby
if they had ‘felt’ supported. There is a marked difference from knowing
she will be supported, for example practically, to feeling supported
emotionally, and feeling she herself and her baby are wanted. Women are
very sensitive to whether or not a partner or spouse is really open to
having a baby and most will take the responsibility to deal with the
problem if the partner’s response is ambivalent or negative. The hurt
and sense of betrayal from this experience of feeling ‘let down’, and
herself and her baby abandoned, is for many immeasurably deep.
To grasp these underlying contributing thoughts and dilemmas is helpful
in understanding how a woman might feel before an abortion and the
significant impact afterwards at different levels of her being. All
those working in abortion related fields need to grasp and appreciate
the themes and struggles for women (and men) contemplating abortion or
recovering from an abortion experience. Understanding post-abortion
complications is fundamental to all abortion-related issues: training
doctors and abortion providers; crisis pregnancy interventions;
pre-decision counselling; abortion counselling; informed choice and
informed consent; prevention of physical and psychological
complications; follow-up care; revision of legislation; and the
provision of treatment, justice and compensation for women who have
sustained complications.(4)
References:
1. Why Do Women Have Abortions, Aida Torres and JD Forrest, Family Planning Perspectives 20(4):169, July/Aug, 1988
2. Real Choices, Frederica Mathews-Green, Multnomah Books, 1994, p34
3. Abortion: A Failure to Communicate, Paul Swope, FIRST THINGS, http://www.firstthings.com
4. Government’s Response Fails Women, Phillippa Peck, Abortion Concern, NZ
Women at Risk
Some women are more at risk of negative abortion reactions than
others. Abortion is always stressful, and how well a person copes with
this stress depends on the individual’s resiliency and conditions under
which the stress occurs. Post-abortion research over the last forty
years shows that women who have existing mental health problems
experience more severe negative post-abortion reactions. But the fact
that they are more vulnerable to stress than others might be, does not
mean that their abortion is not the cause of their current problems.
Pioneering post-abortion researcher Dr David Reardon of the Elliott
Institute, USA, notes: If a glass plate and a plastic plate are both
dropped, the glass plate is likely to shatter, while the same stress
may cause the plastic plate to only crack or chip. In either case the
damage cannot be blamed on the material; it must be blamed on the fall.
While the extent of the damage is related to the nature of the
material, the fall itself is the direct cause of the damage. In the
same way, while the nature of an individual psyche or the mental state
of the person at the time, helps determine the extent of post-abortion
injuries, it is the abortion itself which is the direct cause of these
injuries.
Dr Reardon has done studies on factors predicting negative abortion
reactions (see Identifying High Risk Abortion Patients appears in the
Post Abortion Review 1993, www.afterabortion.org). A summary of this
research follows:
FACTORS PREDICTING NEGATIVE POST-ABORTION REACTIONS (1)
I. CONFLICTS ABOUT THE DECISION
A. Difficulty making the decision, ambivalence, unresolved doubts
Moral beliefs against abortion
a. Religious or conservative values
b. Negative attitudes towards abortion
c. Feelings of shame or social stigma attached to abortion
d. Strong concerns about secrecy
Conflicting maternal desires
a. Originally wanted or planned a pregnancy
b. Abortion of a wanted child due to foetal abnormalities
c. Therapeutic abortion of a wanted pregnancy due to serious health risk to the mother
d. Strong maternal instincts
e. Being married
f. Prior children
g. Failure to take contraceptive precautions, which may indicate an ambivalent desire to become pregnant
h. Preoccupations with fantasies of the foetus, including sex and awareness of the due date
i. Second or third trimester
abortion, which generally indicates strong ambivalence or a coerced
abortion of a “hidden” pregnancy
B. Feels pressured or coerced
Feels pressured to have abortion
a. By husband or boyfriend
b. By parents
c. By doctor, counsellor, employer, or others
Feels decision is not her own, or is “her only choice”
Feels pressured to choose too quickly
C. Decision is made with biased, inaccurate, or inadequate information
II. PSYCHOLOGICAL or DEVELOPMENTAL LIMITATIONS
A. Adolescence, minors having an increased risk
B. Prior emotional or mental health problems
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Poor use of psychological defence or coping mechanisms
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Prior low self-image and esteem
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Poor work patterns
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Prior unresolved trauma
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A history of sexual abuse or sexual assault
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Blames pregnancy on her own character flaws, rather than on chance, others, or on correctable mistakes of behaviour
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Avoidance and denial prior to the abortion
C. Inadequate network of social support
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Few friends
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Made decisions alone, without assistance from a partner
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A poor or unstable relationship with the male partner
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Lack of support from parents and family, either to have the baby or to have the abortion
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Lack of support from male partner to have the baby or to have an abortion
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Accompanied to the abortion by the male partner
References:
1. Identifying High Risk Abortion Patients, David C. Reardon, PhD, Post Abortion Review, Vol 1, No.3, Fall 1993
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