I do think that the women who get abortions are often stereotyped into a crude Cruella DeVille type character. If the norm for an abortion receiver is a woman who already has children can’t you imagine some heart rending possibilities of women who are human and not cruel and grasping? Maybe she has 2 children and is living on a small pay check and knows she will be unable to afford day care to keep her job and so fears that her existing children and her will wind up homeless. In another case, maybe she is currently living with the father but he doesn’t want a child and so threatens to kick her and her other children out again rendering them homeless. Unless she has a lawyer ($$$) she may be unaware that she and her child is entitled to support, or if the father is a ne’er-do-well, the support would be more hypothetical than real anyway. These are women living at the margins, doing the best they can for the children they already have.
The Guttmacher institute has some interesting stats:
• Fifty percent of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25: Women aged 20–24 obtain 33% of all abortions, and teenagers obtain 17%.
• Thirty-seven percent of abortions occur to black women, 34% to non-Hispanic white women, 22% to Hispanic women and 8% to women of other races.**
• Forty-three percent of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% as Catholic.
• Women who have never married obtain two-thirds of all abortions.
• About 60% of abortions are obtained by women who have one or more children.
• The abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level ($9,570 for a single woman with no children) is more than four times that of women above 300% of the poverty level (44 vs. 10 abortions per 1,000 women). This is partly because the rate of unintended pregnancies among poor women (below 100% of poverty) is nearly four times that of women above 200% of poverty* (112 vs. 29 per 1,000 women)
• The reasons women give for having an abortion underscore their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life. Three-fourths of women cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.