12 comments

1. I wonder if she felt such regret because the community around her was unanimously on the side of thinking she should have the baby. She seems to be in the minority according to a recent study that suggests 95% of women who have abortions actually don’t feel regret about it, even though at the time it is a very difficult decision for them.

   http://mashable.com/2015/07/16/abortion-no-regrets/

   • Thanks for sharing the survey. As with all surveys, I would like to know what the questions were, who underwrote the project, etc. I’m not ready to judge the survey, but I would like to know geographics of the participants. Mashable wouldn’t be my first choice for a journalistic choice, and University of California, San Francisco wouldn’t be taken at face value for a result that appears to be suspicious. Worth looking into, though.

     • Oh nice, I just checked again and information directly from the study is actually available!
       http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0128832

       Seems like they did a solid job on it. I would have expected the results to not be quite so high, but then again, those who associate abortion with murder wouldn’t be the ones having abortions.

       I would suggest that this study reveals that post-abortion regret has more to do with one’s surrounding cultural perceptions.

     • Thanks for the legwork, my friend. Two things stuck out right away. They mention that they may not have an adequate system to measure emotion, and the funding source gives me heartburn. The Bixby Foundation is famous for population control. They stand to gain government money with a positive result. Here is there “About” page: http://bixby.ucla.edu/about/

     • Ah yes, I can see why that would raise some concern.

       That got me curious about why women would seek out abortions … here’s what I came up with on that account:
       http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6874/13/29/table/T2

       Demographics-wise, nearly 70% of abortions in the US are from women who or near or below the poverty line.
       http://prospect.org/article/demographics-abortion-its-not-what-you-think

       In looking at this information, it actually makes sense that there would be less regret to having an abortion. The potential results of not having an abortion could be easily seen as dramatically negative in the situations reported.

     • Two things become obvious in looking at these links. With exception of 12% claiming health risks, every other reason given is a great reason for adoption. The other is a pro-abortion advocacy group looking for donations.

     • What about those 70% near or below the poverty line that may lose their job or will certainly miss time if they carry their pregnancy through? Is potentially sacrificing one life for another really a good thing?

       Also, what about the children still waiting to be adopted that are stuck in the foster care system? Why should we be adding to that problem?

     • So you kill them? You kill inconvenient people? Do you have any idea how evil that sounds?

     • Less evil than forcing the birth of every single one leading to potentially immense suffering of many. Even worse is that those who are anti-abortion don’t seem to be tackling the root of the problem – the 70% or so near or below the poverty line. If people are pulled out of poverty, their perceived need for abortions will very likely go away along with it.

     • We greatly differ on the value of life. Let’s leave this one here.

     • I think it’s more the line of what is perceived as good vs evil that we differ on. I find that line, when it comes to abortion, to be much more nuanced based on all of the factors involved. I do believe that reducing the need/desire for abortions in the first place is our best course of action on the subject.

2. Glad you passed that along David. It’s a good story.

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