Abortion: The Woman

The word “abortion” isn’t whispered anymore. Rather, it is a regular part of everyday conversation in the lives of today’s young people and rolls off the tongue the with ease. I know because I have been serving this demographic everyday for over six years at a local pregnancy care center.

This non-profit provides free pregnancy confirmation services and offers consultation on all legal pregnancy options: parenting, adoption, and abortion in hopes that factual information and education help a woman make a life affirming choice.

The Woman

When I first started working at a pregnancy care center six years ago, I had the naive and preconceived opinion that I would see a lot of young teenagers seeking help. My thoughts were that young people would be more embarrassed to tell their mothers and required outside assistance, while adults would be responsible for the consequences of their actions.

This is NOT the case.

Women of all ages seek information on abortion when they are not intending to get pregnant. The youngest person seen at our facility was twelve years old. The oldest was 50.

The majority of women needing help on making a pregnancy decision are between the ages of 20 and 25 years old. Most women are not married, but there are the few married couples that seek abortion for a variety of reasons.

Basically, if you are a woman engaging in sexual activity, you are our demographic.

The reason for abortion is as varied as the ages of the women. Generally, young people state they need to terminate the pregnancy because of financial instability, housing insecurity, lack of a support system, or just bad timing. The choice is never easy and is often shared between tears and tissues. However, I have seen an increase in a more disheartening reason: the Father.

This woman understands she is pregnant with a baby.

She understands it is biologically part of her. However, she does NOT want a relationship with the other biological half of the child and sees this life growing inside of her as an anchor.  The baby is seen as just a tether to a part of her life she wants to avoid.

In this culture of objectifying women, many women we see come from abusive relationships.

These women are hurt and want to seek punishment in some way. Reasons vary, but the means of punishment are the same: abort the baby to hurt the man. In this instance, the child is the weapon used to punish the father for the pain he has imposed on her. In her mind, the logic is: He hurt me, so I’ll hurt him.

The unborn baby is just another way we have found to use and objectify other human beings.

Sadly, the women I see today not only have no regard to the life they are nurturing in their wombs, they also have little regard for the lives they are living or the people with which they share it.

Hurt people hurt people.