Vulnerability of Young Women to Late Term Abortion

Why do women choose to seek a later term abortion? 

On June 14 it was an honor to work to answer this question by presenting empirical evidence at the International Society of Family Law annual conference cosponsored with the United Nations CEDAW, the University of Illinois Law School, Notre Dame Law School, and other organizations.  The conference was entitled Family as the Crucible of Culture and Society: Inequality, Vulnerability, And Justice Within the Family.

My work specifically focused on the vulnerability of young women to late term abortion.  Why do women choose to seek a later term abortion?  A recent study from the University of California, School of Medicine in San Francisco revealed some surprising answers to this question.  The results of that study discovered that women aged 20-24 were more likely than those aged 25-34 to have a later abortion.  More specifically, the research confirmed that most women seeking later abortion fit into one or more of the following five profiles:

1) they are raising children alone;

2) they were depressed or using illicit substances;

3) they were in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence;

4) had trouble deciding for abortion then encountered access problems; or

5) were young and pregnant for the first time, nulliparous.

These are vulnerable women. 

Please note: None of these reasons include fetal abnormalities, or non-viability, or to save the life or health of the mother, the narrative we frequently hear.  Rather, women who have third trimester abortions do so because they find themselves in a very vulnerable situation.  The surprise is that women who are aborting late term pregnancies are doing so because they are young and struggling and almost certainly scared.  A young woman is generally not making that decision because the child is not healthy or because her life is in danger. The Study itself states, "Data suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment."

This empirical perspective on reproductive health changes the narrative on late term abortion justification almost completely.  Women seek late term abortion because they are vulnerable, alone, without support. Read more at Vulnerability of Young Women to Late Term Abortion.  This topic gave us all at the conference an opportunity for innovative thinking about family law policy in terms of protecting vulnerable young women in their choice for late term abortion. 

Most abortion-minded young women are clearly not making a calculated choice of bodily autonomy, another frequent narrative.  Rather, their characteristics include the following:

1. They are afraid.
2. They are not uber-political.
3. They are not radical pro-choice feminists.
4. They do not protest with pro-choice crowds.
5. They do not wage Twitter arguments.
6. They are not calculating murderers.
7. They do not want to terminate their babies.
8. They generally do not have caring communities supporting them.
9. They largely feel they have no other alternative but abortion.
10. They are vulnerable.

The narrative of a young woman considered by Maria Baer in her Gospel Coalition piece fits this profile: "The picture: a young, impoverished, terrified woman – who knows her baby is a human! – but considers abortion anyway.  Fear is incredibly potent."  

There is a great need for some very honest discourse that bridges gaps, and works to understand facts, rather than argues with rights talk and intemperate political passion.  That's what was done at this conference.

The research is bearing out unexpected facts, revealing that later abortion recipients' are young, very vulnerable women. 

Women facing an unplanned pregnancy often have very reasonable, very real fears. They may fear the loss of financial stability, or the loss of the ability to ever reach financial stability. They may fear the loss of an already teetering status quo of a relationship.  They may fear a more challenging future in providing for the children they are already parenting in addition to another, in which every available ounce of food is already consumed at home.  Employment while pregnant may be new territory, and a pregnant woman may lose a job, or she may not get the job hoped for.  She may fear a violent boyfriend or father or partner.  She may even fear pregnancy itself, which is often full of terrifying sickness, physical pain, loss of emotional control, and embarrassing bodily problems. All of these fears are real.  Furthermore, these notions and facts have long been known and are often-cited at pregnancy resource centers the country over.  Baer writes,

A common theme weaves through most of them: fear. … While many who support … abortion rights believe they're serving needy women, they're overlooking one critical reality: Women are often brought—reluctantly—to the abortion doctor. These women are compelled toward abortion not by their own empowering, my-body-is-my-own sense of autonomy, but by another person seeking control. Angry boyfriends, angry husbands, angry mothers, angry employers—these are so often the wind at the back of an abortion-minded woman."

These are vulnerable young women who are very afraid - afraid of pregnancy, afraid of abortion, afraid of parenting, afraid of what others might think, afraid of many things. Women may fear something else, too: adoption. Baer writes that though a decision for adoption may be "morally clear," she also notes that the thought is often experientially vague: "It seems, or feels, much less repugnant to have a hidden medical procedure in the first weeks of pregnancy than to consciously hand over a smiling, babbling baby to a woman whose body never knew him or her. Its cognitive dissonance…, but it's a real—and understandable—fear."

My perspectives are unapologetically pro-woman, pro-child, pro-family, and pro-life, yet pregnancy is revelational when you are young and scared. Young women who chose late term abortion do not necessarily want an abortion.  Rather, they are simply scared and without support. 

Learn solutions by downloading and reading the brief piece at Vulnerability of Young Women to Late Term Abortion.  Family restoration requires attention to this new evidence.