Women Highly Rate Help from Pregnancy Resource Centers: New National Study

6/13/2023

Women facing a problematic pregnancy who have had contact with a pro-life pregnancy resource center almost always give the centers high marks for improving their lives, according to a new peer reviewed study, “Welcomed Pregnancies: Characteristics and Patterns of Adjusting to Unwanted, Unplanned, Untimely or Otherwise Difficult Pregnancies.”

In this national survey of 1,000 American women, 41-45 years of age, 22.6% reported a history of abortion and 35.5% who did not have abortions reported a problematic pregnancy, that ended in either a delivery or a natural loss.

Approximately 26% respondents who had problematic pregnancies reported having certainly or possibly having had contact with a pregnancy help center that did not refer for abortions.

When asked to rank whether their contact with the pregnancy help center made their lives “very much worse” (score=0) to “very much better” (score=100), the average score for women at lower risk of abortion was 84.8 and 77.1 for women at higher risk of abortion. Only a single woman’s rating was below 50, the neutral point, and that was a score of 40, indicating only mild negative feelings.

Pregnancy Resource Centers Face Unjust Attacks

Conducted by the Elliot Institute and the Charlotte Lozier Institute, this is the first national, random survey of women’s own assessments of their experiences with pro-life pregnancy centers. The findings are especially important given the increasing number attacks against these centers instigated by abortion proponents.

Most recently, the state of Massachusetts has announced a state funded “public education campaign” to warn pregnant women away from pregnancy help centers that do not refer for abortions. According to the office of the governor, “Even if you’re not looking for an abortion, these centers are not a safe or trusted place to go for reproductive health care.” 

Abortion Providers Seek to Increase Abortion Rates and are Complicit in the Unwanted Abortions Crisis

This orchestrated attack on pregnancy help centers by radical abortion advocates and population controllers reflects their desire to abort every pregnancy they can. For people in this mindset, every extra abortion increases abortion clinic profits, reduces population growth, and lowers humanity’s carbon footprint.

This is why abortion clinics deny any responsibility for ensuring that every woman’s abortion decision is freely made, consistent with her own values and preferences, and likely to improve her life.

Unlike all other doctors, who are required to develop an evidence-based risk-versus-benefits assessment before providing a medical treatment, abortionists deny any responsibility for determining when, if ever, an abortion is more likely to help than hurt their patients.

Instead, abortion providers insist their highest duty is to simply respect women’s “reproductive autonomy.” This is why they refuse to screen patients for any of fifteen risk factors for negative mental health outcomes following abortion identified by the American Psychological Association. Screening for risk factors, much less questioning why the woman is seeking an abortion, they argue, disrespects patient autonomy and might even introduce stress, doubts, and confusion about “a decision that has already been made.”

This laissez faire policy maximizes abortion rates. It also allows pro-abortionists to turn a blind eye to the undisputed fact that over 60% of abortion patients report feeling pressured into unwanted abortions. It is also why they dismiss the complaints of patients who blame their abortions for contributing to more mental health harm than good as simply the price our nation must pay for protecting and respecting women’s “freedom of choice.”

Conclusion

In short, women who seek help from pregnancy resource centers overwhelmingly report these services improved their lives. These women also report their lives were massively improved by welcoming their problematic pregnancies rather than aborting them.

But these facts gall abortion advocates. The attacks on pro-life pregnancy centers will continue precisely because they are helping women avoid unwanted and unsafe abortions. Pro-lifers are helping women escape the pressures they face to accept unwanted abortions, cutting into abortion clinic profits, and elevating birth rates. Those are the “sins” that pro-abortionists most hate.

Citing

Reardon D C (June 07, 2024) Welcomed Pregnancies: Characteristics and Patterns of Adjusting to Unwanted, Unplanned, Untimely or Otherwise Difficult Pregnancies. Cureus 16(6): e61885. doi:10.7759/cureus.61885

Online version