Elliot Institute Special Report
From the Leader in Post-Abortion Research

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Reversing the Gender Gap
The Essential Guide for Pro-Life Candidates

Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from our guide for pro-life candidates, Reversing the Gender Gap, which we are publishing in installments. Please share this material with any pro-life candidates you know who are running for office, or who are already in office. If you missed the previous installments of "Reversing the Gender Gap," click here.

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Background Polls & Insights, Part I
 

Americans -- Including Women -- Dislike Abortion

A major poll of women’s concerns¹ commissioned by the pro-abortion Center for the Advancement of Women (CAW) in 2003 found that fewer than one-third of Americans (30 percent) believe abortion should be generally available. Fifty-one percent had a strongly restrictive opinion, with 17 percent favoring a total ban on abortion and 34 percent saying it should be allowed only in cases of rape or incest or to prevent the death of the mother.

CAW president Faye Wattleton, former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, admitted that the poll confirms a steady decline of support for abortion among women. Indeed, the poll found that keeping abortion legal was the next to last most important priority for women.
 

Preventing domestic violence was the most commonly supported concern (92 percent),
followed by equal pay for equal work (90 percent). By contrast, only 41 percent gave any priority to the goal of “preserving abortion rights.” Having more time off work to care for family (74 percent); reducing drug and alcohol addiction (72 percent); and increasing women’s study of math, science, and technology (66 percent) all garnered much more support than abortion.

While the CAW poll did not identify whether respondents had actually had an abortion, other polls have shown that women who have experienced abortion generally have a just as negative, or an even more negative, view of abortion. For example, a recent survey of American women who had undergone abortions found that 64 percent felt pressured to abort by others.²  Moreover, a survey of women in post-abortion support groups found that 53% felt forced by others and 83% would have carried to term with more support from those around them.³
 

Most women who have had abortions are not so much "pro-choice" as they are pro-compassion. They empathize with the unique and sometimes overwhelming challenges faced by many women. They often resent snap judgments or unqualified public condemnation of women who have had abortions, especially those who were pressured, coerced, or even violently forced into abortion.

Pressure often comes from trusted authorities.³ The earlier survey of women who sought post-abortion counseling found that many had been encouraged to abort by a social worker, abortion counselor or doctor.

Indeed, in the above-mentioned survey of American women who had abortions ...

• 52% felt rushed

• 54% reported that they were uncertain about abortion, but ...

• 67 percent received no counseling and ...

• 79 percent weren't counseled about alternatives.

• 84% were not fully informed²  (Another "informed consent" survey found that 95% wanted to be thoroughly informed.)

Further, studies have found that homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant women,⁴ and in a number of cases, women were killed or assaulted by their partners after refusing to have an abortion or because the father didn't want to pay child support.⁵

When women who've had abortions vote for a “pro-choice” candidate, they are not generally voting for abortion (which for most was an unwanted and ugly experience); they are voting against candidates whose silence on injustices to women seems to imply judgment or a lack of compassion toward mothers.

Most "pro-choice" voters will support a candidate who ...

• acknowledges the injustice of pregnancy-related discrimination, abuse, violence and widespread coercion and forced abortion in America ...

• recognizes the immediate danger to teens and women, ranging from coercion to post-abortion injury, grief, trauma and death in the aftermath of abortion ...

• shows compassion for survivors of these injustices, including those suffering post-abortion trauma, injury and pain, and for the families who have lost a loved one to pregnancy-related violence or death in the aftermath of abortion. 

They are voting for candidates who recognize the realities women face rather than those who – by their silence on key issues – seem to judge, condemn or remain indifferent to widespread injustices to women.
 

Americans Know Abortion Doesn't Improve Women's Lives

A national opinion poll commissioned by the Elliot Institute in December 2002 (± 4%) asked, “When a woman has an abortion, do you think it generally makes her life better, worse, or has little impact?” Overall, only 16 percent of Americans believe abortion generally makes women’s lives better and 52 percent believe it generally makes women’s lives worse.⁶

Figure 1

As seen in Figure 1, even when respondents are divided by how closely they identify themselves with the “pro-life” or “pro-choice” label, the most commonly held belief in each category is that abortion generally makes women’s lives worse. It is also notable that “pro-choice” women were 43 percent less likely than “pro-choice” men to believe that abortion improves a woman’s life, one of many indicators in the poll that women across all ideological groups have a more negative view of abortion’s impact than do men. Also, the relatively high levels of uncertainty among the “middle” and “pro-choice” groups in response to this question suggests that the views of many in these groups would be strongly influenced by evidence of abortion’s harm to women.

Americans Suspect Negative Abortion Effects Are More Common and Severe Than We Are Generally Told
 

Asked how many women suffer emotional problems after an abortion, only 15 percent stated that emotional problems were rare or uncommon, 27 percent stated it was moderately common, and 59 percent stated it was very common.

Respondents were then asked to rank the severity of emotional problems following abortion, when they do occur, on a scale from 1 to 9. Overall, only 20 percent believed emotional problems were relatively minor (1-3), 42 percent believed the problems were moderate  (4-6), and 38 percent believed they were severe (7-9). The breakdown by political ideology is shown in Figure 2. Those who identified themselves as “strongly pro-choice” or in the middle were most likely to anticipate that the negative emotional effects are moderately severe. Pro-lifers were most likely to consider the effects to be very severe.

Figure 2

Another question in the survey (not shown in graph form) revealed that most people (74 to 90 percent) believed abortion clinics do not fully disclose the emotional risks of abortion to women. Even among the most “pro-choice” respondents, only a minority believed that clinics give their patients very complete counseling about the emotional impact of abortion.
 

Americans Know Abortion Is Wreaking Havoc on Women’s Lives
 

The Elliot Institute poll shows that even though the media have ignored a large number of studies documenting physical and psychological complications associated with abortion, most people, and especially women, are still inclined to see abortion as a harmful experience. It is most likely that this negative view is largely based on personal experience or observations of the abortion experiences of friends and loved ones. If the public is further educated about the risks of abortion in the context of political debates, it is likely that these negative attitudes would be even further strengthened.
 

Pro-abortion “experts” can swear up and down that abortion is safe, but the public will know this is posturing. Too many people now have some personal experience with abortion or know someone who has been through an abortion. They know abortion is a painful, devastating and very often unwanted experience – one that many women and girls would not and do not freely choose for themselves. They know it is haunting people’s lives.

This is why you shouldn’t be afraid to state that, “as everybody knows,” abortion is wreaking havoc in women’s lives. You do not have to assert that abortion always hurts women — but it does hurt many women and we must be concerned for them. This statement not only conveys your concern but also affirms the average listener's assumption that abortion isn't truly helping to improve women's lives, while also reinforcing the commonly held view that abortion is fraught with negative side effects that can plague women over many years.

to be continued ...

Citations

1. “Is Your Mother’s Feminism Dead? New Agenda for Women Revealed in Landmark Two-Year Study,” press release from the Center for the Advancement of Women (www.advancewomen.org), June 24, 2003; and Steve Ertelt, “Pro-Abortion Poll Shows Majority of Women Are Pro-Life,” LifeNews.com (www.lifenews.com), June 25, 2003.

2. VM Rue et. al., “Induced abortion and traumatic stress: A preliminary comparison of American and Russian women,” Medical Science Monitor 10(10): SR5-16, 2004.

3. Reardon, Aborted Women, Silent No More (Springfield, IL: Acorn Books) 2002, p. 336.

4. I.L. Horton and D. Cheng, “Enhanced Surveillance for Pregnancy-Associated Mortality-Maryland, 1993-1998,” JAMA 285(11): 1455-1459 (2001); see also J. Mcfarlane et. al., "Abuse During Pregnancy and Femicide: Urgent Implications for Women's Health," Obstetrics & Gynecology 100: 27-36 (2002).

5. See the special report, Forced Abortion in America, at www.unchoice.info/coerced.htm.

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