While the subject of abortion is controversial in the United States, it remains a legal personal choice for women and girls. The resolution to have an abortion is, for many girls and women, a tough one that is influenced by many social, personal and outside pressures.
Responsibility
According to a study done by Wm. Robert Johnston at the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) in 2004, the most prominent reason given by girls and women for having an abortion is that they are not ready for the responsibility that raising a healthy, successful and happy child brings. This includes the feeling of immaturity and inability to raise a child. Children are an enormous amount of work with a constant need for attention, and many times this means sacrificing many aspects of the mothers' own life for her child. A woman may choose to wait until she is at more stable point in her life before having a baby.
Financial Concerns
A report done by Dr. Mark Lino for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2009 estimates that a dual-parent household making less than $56,670 per year before taxes will spend $149,760 on each child before that child turns 18. This number goes up exponentially if the household brings in more money. Such high costs are hard on mothers who have not planned monetarily for a child. In addition, the time commitment of raising a child may take away from the mother's focus on her career, thereby reducing the rate at which she is able to move up the corporate ladder.
Maternal Health
Concerns about physical and mental health of the mother as well as physical health of the fetus take up a small 1 to 2 percent in the AIG study of all reasons given for electing an abortion. The physical strain that a fetus causes to his mother has the potential to kill her if she has pre-existing health problems or pregnancy complications. The mother may also become mentally destabilized from the pressure, stress, obligation and preparation of an unexpected baby. Either physical or metal traumas such as these may compromise the mother's ability to care for and raise a child.
Outside Pressures
Pressure from parents, guardians, peers or significant others is another reason women and girls opt for abortion. This is a fairly rare deciding factor with less than 1 percent of women and girls claiming this as their cause according to Wm. Robert Johnston's study. Girls who are already uncertain of what they should do when unexpectedly pregnant can be swayed by those around them because they want to be supported by the people they are closest to.
Rape, Incest and Cultural Motives
Taking up a very slim percentage of the deciding factors according to Johnston's study are abortion because of rape, incest or gender selection. A pregnancy resulting from rape or incest might be aborted because of bad emotional ties the mother may have with the child among other factors including age and health of the baby or mother. Gender selection rarely happens in the U.S. and is normally found in societies that limit children per couple. However, gender-specific abortions may occur when a family with same-sex children has a strong desire to raise the opposite sex.
Older Age
While abortion is generally associated with young adult females, 4 to 8 percent of women who chose abortion in the AIG study did so because they already had children and do not want more. After raising children, the time, physical and financial commitment is well-known and such an undertaking may not be realistic or desired.
Relationship Problems
An even greater deciding factor, taking up about 12 percent of abortion reasons concluded by Johnston, is the relationship between the mother and the father. A mother may not feel confident raising a child without the father's full support, or she may not like the idea that the child will not have a father figure. The emotional and mental stress caused by a poor relationship also has the ability to negatively effect the mother's perception of the pregnancy and cause her to view raising a happy and healthy child to be an impossible feat.
References
- Johnston, Wm. Robert. (2008). "Reasons given for having abortions in the United States."
- U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2009). "Expeditures on Children by Families, 2009". Alexandria, VA: Mark Lino, PhD.
- Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2005). Voluntary Relinquishment for Adoption. Retrieved June 15, 2010
