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Survey on Women and Abortion Opens New Area of Debate

by Bill Fancher and Jody Brown
December 6, 2004

(AgapePress) - Pro-life advocates claim a new poll on abortion may change the whole debate on the controversial issue. One pro-lifer says the poll shows the world what most her fellow advocates have known for years.

According to a recent nationwide survey of 1,001 Americans conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide, 61 percent felt that "abortion is almost always a bad thing for a woman." In contrast, 23 percent stated is was "almost always a good thing." The Wirthlin poll coincides with the results of another survey conducted by the Elliott Institute in December 2002, which found that 52 percent thought abortion makes women's lives worse, whereas only 16 percent believed it makes women's live better.

Dorinda Boardlee of the pro-life group Americans United for Life says the more recent poll delivers a clear message.

"[The Wirthlin survey] shows that there's no longer this dichotomy between those who speak for the unborn child and those who claim to speak for woman," Boardlee says, "because if you claim to speak for women, you will now understand from our 30 years of abortion experience that abortion for family hurts women."

According to Boardlee, abortion hurts women both physically and mentally. And in another finding from Wirthlin, 64 percent of Americans know someone who has had an abortion. Boardlee reacts to that discovery.

"This is something that we are experiencing from the women who are in our lives," she says. "[T]hey have voices; and they can speak, unlike unborn children; and they are showing severe psychological problems. They're showing problems with their future child-bearing capability. The truth always comes out."

According to the pro-life advocate, the realization that women's health is damaged by abortion will change the debate forever. Americans, she says, are "facing the reality that the violence of abortion leads to disaster for women, our children, and our culture." And abortion, she adds, "has not turned out to be the great liberator we were told it would be."

The 2002 survey conducted by the Elliott Institute established that 80 percent of Americans felt that women experienced moderate to severe emotional effects from abortion. An even higher percentage, including those who were "pro-choice," said women were not fully informed of this risk beforehand.

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