A 1993 study showed that 81% of women who elect abortion have high risk of experiencing regret based insufficient understanding of what the abortion procedure was actually accomplishing. 1 When circumstances are difficult and strained, most do not think of the unseen pregnancy in terms of fetal development. Understanding of the humanity of the unborn child can be a rude awakening after such an irreversible decision. Even when the case population is of those who would be expected to justify their abortions, we find a high rate of women admitting to the “wrongness” of abortion. A 1981 opinion poll of 1,105 women commissioned by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (a pro-choice research organization funded by Planned Parenthood) found that 24% of these women considered the procedure “morally wrong”. 2 A more recent Los Angeles Times poll found that a majority of Americans favored making abortion illegal with few exceptions (41%) or totally illegal (12%). 3
1 Sachdev, Paul, 1993, Abortion and Unmarried Women
2 Medical World News, March 9, 1987
3 Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2005