According to a 1988 article published in a journal by advocates of abortion, 93% of abortions are obtained for social reasons. Authors Aida Torres and Jacqueline Sarroch Forrest conducted a survey of 1900 women with 1,773 responding. They then compiled a table taken from the responses of the women surveyed, of the most important reason each woman had obtained an abortion. When the percentages are added together, 93% of abortions were obtained for social reasons which do NOT include abortions for hard-case pregnancies. Their own analysis showed that so-called hard cases were, at most, 7%. These include abortions for:
- Rape or incest (1%)
- Pregnancies which jeopardized health (3%)
- Pregnancies in which the child had a potential disability (3%)
Reference: Torres, Aida and Jacqueline Sarroch Forrest, Family Planning Perspectives, Volume 20, Number 4, July/August 1988, p. 170.
- Please note that the data comes from a publication of the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, an abortion advocate group. Data presented in this and other tables may be biased infavor of abortion.
| Why Women Have Abortions: Reason for Abortion | * | ** |
| Woman is concerned about how having baby would change her life | 6% | 284 women |
| Women can’t afford baby now | 21% | 372 women |
| Woman has problems with relationship/wants to avoid single parenthood | 12% | 213 women |
| Woman is unready for responsibility | 21% | 372 women |
| Woman doesn’t want others to know she has had sex or is pregnant | 1% | 18 women |
| Woman is not mature enough, or is too young to have child | 11% | 195 women |
| Woman has all the children she wanted, or has all grown children | 8% | 142 women |
| Husband or partner wants woman to have abortion | 1% | 18 women |
| Fetus has possible health problem | 3% | 53 women |
| Woman has health problem | 3% | 53 women |
| Woman’s parents want her to have abortion | 1/2% | 9 women |
| Woman was victim of rape or incest | 1% | 18 women |
| Other | 3% | 53 women |
| * Percent of 1,773 responses. Percentages in the original add up to 101% due to rounding, per Communication Dept. of Family Planning Perspectives.
** Raw number of 1,773 respondents who chose each answer. |
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