Important Basic Facts and Figures Regarding Abortion and Abortion Complications • AfterAbortion.org

In a major national poll by the Los Angeles Times, 56 percent of women admitting to a past abortion reported a sense of guilt and 26 percent regretted choosing abortion.(1) It should be noted that as with similar studies, the number of women who admitted having abortions was much less than half the actual abortion rate. Presumably, the rate of regret among concealers would be even higher.
In longitudinal and retrospective studies, approximately 50 percent of women who have had an abortion will conceal their past abortion[s] from interviewers.(2) Even in short-term follow-up studies, there are high sample attrition rates, typically in the range of 20 to 60 percent. Demographic comparisons of those who initially consent to follow-up and subsequently refuse to be interviewed indicate that those who exclude themselves from the final sample are more likely to match the profile of women who report the greatest post-abortion distress.(3)
Journal articles by National Abortion Federation officials verify that many women in a crisis pregnancy situation may be making hasty, ill considered, dysfunctional decisions for abortion.(4) Because the woman is in a crisis situation, it is incumbent on the health care provider to bring a “cool head” to the situation in order to help the patient explore alternatives she may not have considered, to identify and explain her individual risk factors, and to independently arrive at a medical recommendation.
In a study of 252 women who experienced post-abortion problems, 81% felt rushed in making their abortion decision, 93% insisted that they had been given little or none of the necessary information to make a good decision, and 82 percent stated that their abortion decision was not at all “thought out.” For most of these women, the choice to abort was a marginal decision filled with ambivalence. By the time they entered the abortion clinic, only 39 percent felt very firm in their decision to abort. In contrast, 41 percent felt very uncertain about their decision, and the remainder were somewhere in between. Because of this uncertainty, 44 percent stated that they were still very actively looking for another option up to the final moments before their abortions.(5)
Ambivalence, moral conflict, and lack of sufficient information prior to an abortion are all statistically associated with greater psychological maladjustments after an abortion.(6)
Sylvia Stengle, executive director of the National Abortion Federation, which represents numerous abortion clinics, has stated that at least one in five patients is at psychological risk from abortion due to prior philosophical and moral beliefs contrary to abortion. Regarding this “worrisome subset” of patients, she concurs that there may be an ethical obligation for abortion practitioners to refuse to participate in the violation of a woman’s conscience.(7)
Various studies have found that 65 to 70 percent of women seeking abortions have a negative moral view of abortion.(8) This evidence is supported by a national random poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times which found that 74% of those admitting a past abortion stated that while they believed women should be able to choose for themselves, they personally believed that abortion “is morally wrong.”(9)
These findings are consistent with polls of the general public which have repeatedly shown that more than 70 percent of Americans admit believing that abortion is immoral.(10) But of those who believe it is immoral, 40 to 50 percent would still allow it under special circumstances or simply because they do not want to “impose their morality” on others, especially loved ones. In one of the most detailed surveys ever done, 77% of the public reported believing that abortion is the taking of a human life, with 49% equating it with murder. Only 16 percent claimed to believe that abortion is only “a surgical procedure for removing human tissue.” Even one-third of those who describe themselves as strongly pro-choice concede that abortion is the taking of a human life.(11)
The ambivalence which the majority of women feel with regard to the morality of abortion is compounded by the ambivalence which many feel about keeping the baby. Researchers report that 30 to 60 percent of women seeking abortion express some desire to keep the child.(12)
Even pro-choice leaders are deeply ambivalent with abortion. Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights and Reproductive Action League has stated, “We think abortion is a bad thing. No woman wants to have an abortion.”(13) Therefore, the fact that many women and men may experience profound regrets and deep remorse after an abortion should not be a surprise to any one.

NOTES: 1. Skelton, G., “Many in Survey Who Had Abortions Cite Guilt Feelings” Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1989.

2. Jones, E.F. & Forrest, J.D., “Underreporting of Abortion in Surveys of U.S. Women: 1976 to 1988,” Demography, 29(1):113-126 (1992).

3. Adler, N., “Sample Attrition in Studies of Psychosocial Sequelae of Abortion: How Great A Problem?” J Applied Soc Psych, 6(3):240-259 (1976).

4. Landy, “Abortion Counseling – A New Component of Medical Care,” Clinics in Obs/Gyn, 13(1):33-41 (1986).

5. Reardon, David C., Aborted Women, Silent No More, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987), 14,15.

6. Franz, Wanda and Reardon, David C., “Differential Impact of Abortion on Adolescents and Adults,” Adolescence, 27(105):161-172 (1992); Adler, et. al., “Psychological Responses After Abortion,” Science, 248:41-44, (1990); Ashton, “The Psychosocial Outcome of Induced Abortion”, British Journal of Ob&Gyn., 87:1115-1122 (1980); Friedman, C., et. al., “The Decision-Making Process and the Outcome of Therapeutic Abortion,” Am. J. of Psychiatry, 131(12):1332-1337 (1974); Gath & Rose, “Psychological Problems & Gynaecological Surgery” in Psychological Disorders in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (London: Butterworths, 1985). Hern, Abortion Practice, (Boulder, CO: Alpenglo Graphics, Inc., 1990); Major & Cozzarelli, “Psychosocial Predictors of Adjustment to Abortion,” Journal of Social Issues, 48(3):121-142 (1992); Rue & Speckhard, “Informed Consent & Abortion: Issues in Medicine & Counseling,” Medicine & Mind 7:75-95 (1992); Reardon, David C., “Predictive Factors of Post-Abortion Maladjustment: Clinical, Legal and Ethical Implications” American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, 1997; Landy, “Abortion Counseling – A New Component of Medical Care,” Clinics in Obs/Gyn, 13(1):33-41 (1986); Speckhard & Rue, “Postabortion Syndrome: An Emerging Public Health Concern,” Journal of Social Issues, 48(3):95-119 (1992).; Vaughan, Canonical Variates of Post Abortion Syndrome (Portsmouth, NH: Institute for Pregnancy Loss, 1990).

7. Woo, J., “Abortion Doctor’s Patients Broaden Suits,” Wall Street Journal, Oct 28, 1994, B12:1.

8. Zimmerman, Passage Through Abortion (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1977), also Reardon, Aborted Women-Silent No More, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987).

9. Los Angeles Times Poll, March 19, 1989, question 76.

10. James Davison Hunter, Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America’s Cultural War (New York: The Free Press, 1994), 93. Similarly, another major poll found that 65% of those who favor legalized abortion, and 74% of those who have had an abortion, believe abortion is morally wrong. (Los Angeles Times Poll, March 19, 1989).

11. Hunter, Before the Shooting Begins, 93.

12. Zimmerman, Passage Through Abortion (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1977), also Reardon, Aborted Women-Silent No More, (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1987) and Francke, The Ambivalence of Abortion (New York: Random House, 1978).

13. Howard Kurtz, “Poor Choice of Words from Abortion Rights Advocate?” The Washington Post, Feb. 7, 1994.

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