Summary of Study #1 – Abortion: The Least of Three Evils

Overview: 

 

  • Study Title: “Abortion: The Least of Three Evils” 
  • August 1994 
  • 43 women (age 18-45) interviewed in St. Louis, MO 
  • Keywords: (1) Comparison of 3 options: Abortion/Adoption/Carrying to term and raising, (2) Self-preservation, (3) Death of self, (4) Introduction of the “Admired Woman” hypothetical, (5) Abortion: A Failure to Communicate article 

Every Right Brain study employs a taxonomy of “Emotional Needs” and “Emotional Barriers.”  In this study they are as follows: 

 Emotional Needs Met by Abortion: 

  • Control, B. Self-Identity, C. Character Preservation, D. Physical Integrity, E. Hope, F. Freedom, G. Resolution,  

Emotional Barriers to Abortion (Fear of…):  

  • Judgment, B. Remorse, C. Physical Trauma 

Study: 

 

Background 

Objectives 

  1. Reduce the number of people who support abortion as a solution to an unwanted or untimely pregnancy
  2. Understand the psychological dynamics that motivate women to feel the way they do about abortion

Findings

The findings of this study are communicated effectively in a 1998 First Things article by Paul Swope: Abortion: A Failure to Communicate. 

Respondents tell us that each “solution” (abortion, keeping the child, adoption) involves some form of threat to a pregnant woman’s SELF-PRESERVATION. The threat they feel to the core of who they understand themselves to be is experienced emotionally as the “death” of the familiar self.  

The death of the self is a psychological death which is experienced in the right brain as an evil.  

  1. Abortion = evil because it results in the death of a budding life. In the urgency of the current crisis, most women do not perceive the long-term psychological damage to themselves that an abortion can cause (This became a central aspect of Study #7, separated from this study in objective, focus and over 20 years).  
  2. Carrying the child to term and keeping him or her = evil because to do so threatens both the woman’s current and future selves. She feels that becoming a mother will prevent her from ever again becoming the person she is in the present. Imagining keeping the child radically restricts her sense of freedom for the future.  
  3. Adoption = evil because it threatens the woman’s present and future selves as well. She fears she would not feel free because the child would be “out there somewhere” and her uncertainty and doubt about the child’s wellbeing would end her freedom. Adoption is also perceived as evil because it leads to the death of the relationship between the child and his or her mother. Unfortunately, for many of these respondents, abortion is the least evil “solution” because, while it terminates the pregnancy, it preserves the woman’s sense of who she is, both in the present and in the future and allows her to return to the life she knows and wishes to maintain.  

Respondents weigh the “wrongness” of ending the life of the fetus with the “wrongness” of ending their own life as they know it. Among the many justifications, rationalizations, and minimizations, they often use “unselfish” terms saying the baby would suffer from abuse, neglect, lack of loving attention, bad situations, unfortunate circumstances, or poverty. 

Some unmarried women who elect to carry their pregnancies to term tell us that they have always wanted to have children and they have come to view their pregnancies as opportunities rather than impediments. The idea of motherhood results in the woman’s expanded sense of who she is and the resumption of a sense that she can have control (This became a central theme of Study #6, separated from this study in objective, focus and by 12 years). 

On the right side of the brain the respondents believe that abortion is wrong. They appeal to left brain logic or abstract reasoning to “justify” what they intuit to be essentially wrong. Justification, rationalization, compartmentalization, and minimization are central themes of all six (and the synthesis study) studies. They are themes that are inextricably linked to the issue of abortion.  

Whether it’s spirituality, religion, moral law and/or an innate sense of right and wrong, almost all respondents acknowledge or imply there is reason for guilt to be associated with abortion. Abortion is an act that requires JUSTIFICATION. It is an act that a woman must “live with.” It causes “regret” and “remorse.” Conflict and guilt are clearly associated with perceived choices. Most woman are seen as agonizing over the choice to abort which they say they will live with for the rest of their lives.  

Again, tied to the idea of justification, respondents talk about the courage women experience making such a weighty decision as to abort a child. They feel courageous yet guilty. These two feelings cannot exist in the right side of the brain at the same time.  For courage to overcome guilt, the courageous aspects of the act of abortion must be dominant. Hence, the rigidity of women’s rationalizations and justifications for undergoing abortions is supported by feelings of courage and maintained as a fortress against guilt. Ironically, the urgency of women’s needs of self-survival leads them to rationalize away God’s law that life should be revered. Wearing the blinders of rationalization, women look past God’s law regarding the valuing of the equal rights of all beings to live. Their compulsion to default to self-survival becomes easier.  

The belief that an unwanted pregnancy can be rectified by an abortion along with doing penance (suffering guilt, remorse) and can result in learning that moves a woman onto a higher moral plain is a very strong motif in these interviews (tied to the “abortion as a courageous decision” aspect. It leads many respondents to argue that there should be stricter regulations on abortions and how many abortions women can have (confidants don’t want to be seen as “judgmental” when listening and advising a friend contemplating abortion but this is not an issue when discussing women who have had three or more abortions). 

There are five types of situations into which women categorize the need for abortions: 

  1. A mistake (a once-in-a-lifetime event that all women should have a choice to solve through abortion) 
  2. The casual user (this is the least well-supported) 
  3. The life of the mother is in danger (unquestionably justifies abortion) 
  4. Rape or incest (unquestionably justifies abortion, respondents speak with high level of emotionality) 
  5. Deformed fetus (child is being saved from a fate worse than death) 

Five distinct themes emerged when respondents were asked to picture a woman they admired and wished to be like in some way: A. Strong and courageous, B. Calm and in control, C. Open to others’ ideas, D. Caring, E. Achieved. Since women who face an unwanted pregnancy are primarily motivated by their own survival the admired woman can serve as an ideal role model to help them work through their conflicts and achieve resolution.  The “Admired Woman” is a recurring central theme, especially prominent in Study #2 but even in Study #7 with the “Admired Woman” having much in common with the “Legacy Customer”.