Poll: Majority of Americans Believe Abortion Hurts Women Physically, Mentally
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 25, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — In a new national survey conducted by the Polling Company for the pro-life organization Americans United for Life, a majority of Americans say they know someone who has had an abortion. A majority of those surveyed also believe that abortion hurts women.
The Polling Company, a nationally known firm, asked the questions about abortion’s effects during a May 17-18 survey with 800 adults across the country.
Asked if they personally knew someone who has had an abortion, some 68 percent said they know a woman who had one while 30 percent said they did not.
Of those who knew a post-abortive woman, 55 percent described her abortion as a negative experience while just 33 percent described it as a positive one and 12 percent either didn’t know or would not answer the question.
Asked to think of abortion and women in general, the survey asked respondents if they thought abortion "is almost always a good thing for a woman or almost always a bad thing for a woman."
The survey found 53 percent say abortion is almost always a bad thing and a tiny 13 percent said abortion is almost always a good thing for women. Another 21 percent said neither and 13 percent didn’t know or didn’t answer the question.
Asked to describe any ways in which women may be adversely affected by an abortion, respondents to the Polling Company survey gave multiple answers.
Some 51 percent said an abortion would cause women negative emotional impact, 46 percent said an abortion would hurt women psychologically, 38 percent cited adverse spiritual or religious impact, 33 percent said abortions might cause medical or physical problems for women, and 25 percent cited abortion as potentially causing a negative impact on future relationships with men.
Another 24 percent said abortion would cause all of the above problems for women — making it so all of the potential problems, except for an impact on future relationships, are post-abortion problems a majority of Americans say women will likely experience.
Just 3 percent of those polled said women would face none of the five potential problems after an abortion and another 3 percent either didn’t know or did not answer the question.
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