Abortion advocates speak proudly of "freedom to choose," conjuring up images of women freely and autonomously making decisions that are "right" for them. But research into abortion decision making presents a far different picture.
Polls show that most women choosing abortion--at least 70 percent--say they believe abortion is immoral.(1) In most cases, women who abort are violating their consciences because of pressure from other people or their own circumstances. More than 80 percent of women who report post-abortion problems say they would have completed their pregnancies under better circumstances or with more support from the people they love.(2)
The sad truth is that hundreds of thousands of women undergo unwanted abortions every year to please someone else or because of pressure or coercion by their sexual partners, parents, social workers, counselors, employers or school administrators. In a WEBA survey of 252 post-abortive women, more than half said they felt "forced" into the abortion by others.(3) How is such widespread coercion possible?
Experts on crisis counseling have found that people are more vulnerable to outside influences whenever they are faced with a crisis situation. The more overwhelming the crisis appears to be, the less they trust their own opinions and abilities to make the right decision. As a result, a person in crisis is more likely to feel dependent on the opinions and direction of others.
People in crisis "are often less in touch with reality and more vulnerable to change than they are in non-crisis situations."(4) They often experience feelings of tiredness, lethargy, hopelessness, inadequacy, confusion, anxiety and disorganization. Thus, they are more likely to stand back and let other people make their decisions for them, instead of protecting themselves from decisions that may not be in their best interests.
Fundamentally, a person who is upset and trapped in a crisis wants to reestablish stability in his or her life. This desire to be free of the crisis leaves the individual more susceptible than normal to any influence from others who claim to be able to solve the crisis, especially to the influence of those who appear to have status or authority.(5) In such periods of heightened psychological accessibility, "A relatively minor force, acting for a relatively short time, can switch the whole balance from one side or to the other--to the side of mental health or to the side of ill health."(6)
For full text and more information view:
http://www.afterabortion.org/PAR/V8/n1/crisistheory.html