Last month, reports broke that abortionists wanted to train physicians in a new, “convenient” method of abortion that uses a small “hand-held device” meant to end an unborn life “almost completely intact.” The abortion doctor behind it noted that it could be a “game-changer,” as women could quickly end their pregnancies, which Townhall covered. While the left continues to push its pro-abortion “women’s rights” narrative, a study published this month showed that most women who have had an abortion did not want the procedure or were coerced into it.
A new study from the Charlotte Lozier Institute released on Thursday found that nearly 70 percent of abortions are coerced, unwanted, or inconsistent with women’s preferences.
The study, published in the medical journal Cureus, surveyed a national sample of 1,000 women ages 41-45. Approximately one in four women reported a history of abortion. Key findings included that 67 percent of women described their abortions as “accepted but inconsistent with their values and preferences” (43 percent) or “unwanted or coerced” (24 percent). One-third, 33 percent, of respondents, said their abortion was “wanted.” According to the key findings, 60 percent said they would have preferred giving birth if they had received either more emotional support or financial security.
In response to the findings, lead author of the study David Reardon, Ph.D. said: "This study confirms earlier findings that the hidden epidemic of unwanted abortions is real, and far larger than most people imagine. We need to discard the dangerous assumption that ‘freedom of choice’ reflects the reality behind most women’s experiences with abortion. Only the minority of abortions are freely chosen absent outside pressures.”
This study is the second of Charlotte Lozier’s Unwanted Abortion Studies. According to a press release from the organization, the study confirms prior research that showed over 60 percent of women who had abortions report high levels to abortion from one or more sources.
“We need to discard the dangerous assumption that ‘freedom of choice’ reflects the reality behind most women’s experiences with abortion,” said Reardon. “Only the minority of abortions are freely chosen absent outside pressures.”
Tessa Longbons, Charlotte Lozier’s senior research associate and co-author of the study, also described it as an “epidemic.”
“We tend to think of abortion coercion in countries with oppressive regimes like China. In fact, this shocking hidden epidemic is happening all around us. Mail-order abortion pills remove the doctor from the room and make it easier than ever to force abortions on women and girls who do not want them – their distress compounded by the sight of their baby’s clearly human body. Countless women suffer in silence under the guise of ‘choice’ when they never felt like they truly had one,” Longbons explained.
“No woman should have to endure an unwanted abortion. This ought to be a point of common ground in the abortion debate. Instead, it is a rarely discussed third rail, even as pro-abortion politicians work to shut down the life-affirming safety net. It’s time for a national conversation about abortion coercion that respects the range of women’s lived experiences while acknowledging that the overwhelming majority of abortions are in some degree of conflict with what women actually want. Their stories deserve to be told and not erased from the conversation,” she added.
