Another Way Abortion Hurts Women

Kevin DeYoung has a very compelling post on yet another way that abortion deeply hurts women in the long run. He begins with this:

Sixty-four percent of American women who choose abortion feel pressured to do so by others. So says Richard Stith in a brief essay in the most recent issue of First things. Although sexual promiscuity and out of wedlock pregnancies are not new, until recently there was a fair amount of social pressure on friends, family, and not least of all the man involved, to take some responsibility for the surprise child. But with the invention of a constitutional right to abortion, the one who often feels the most pressure--a pressure to abort--is the women carrying the child.

Think about it. Suppose a 17 year old girl has sex with her 20 year old boyfriend. A few months later she finds out she is expecting. Now what? Well, the boyfriend doesn't want any part of a child, so he encourages an abortion. He argues, "Hey, if I knew you were thinking of having a baby I wouldn't have had sex in the first place." (He probably would have--sex is a powerful desire--but he can make the argument nonetheless.) The girl's family try to be supportive. But they know the work involved in raising a child. Plus, mom would really like her teenage daughter to finish school. Her friends are little help. They can't imagine toting a baby around at their age. Some of the friends have had abortions themselves. All the pressure--subtle or direct--is to terminate the pregnancy.

Read the rest.