Two recent studies by Newfoundland researchers show that single women undergoing abortion are both knowledgeable about contraceptives available to them and are unwilling either to marry to legitimize the pregnancy or to consider adoption as a viable alternative.  For women under 24, age, lack of financial security and single status are the three most common-cited reasons for seeking abortion.

Paul Sachdev, a social work professor at Memorial University in St. John’s interviewed 130 single women who had abortions in 1985.  He found that one-third used contraceptives al the time, while 55.7 per cent used them irregularly or not at all.  11 per cent said they had originally intended to become pregnant but later decided to have abortion.

Regular contraceptive users became pregnant because they used ineffective methods, or used them improperly, Sachdev said.  Those who used contraceptives irregularly or not at all had “emotional or moral conflicts.”  The use of birth control suggested “preparation for sex or an admission that they are sexually active,” he noted.  80 to 85 per cent of the women interviewed had “fair to good” knowledge about contraceptives, he reported, none had difficulty obtaining them if they wanted them.

Alarming increase

Newfoundland has one of the lowest rates of abortion in Canada, writes Devaki Krishnamoni, director of social work at the Salvation Army Grace General Hospital in St. John’s and yet there was a 246 per cent increase in the abortion rate between 1973 and 1977.

Krishnamoni interviewed 75 applicants for abortions in Newfoundland in 1979, 76 per cent were single, 14.7 per cent were married and the rest were either separated, divorced or widowed.  Ages ranged from 14 to 45 years; 37.3 per cent were between 14 and 19, 52 per cent between 20 and 29 and the rest were over 30.

Abort not adopt

Approximately one half of the single women under 24 refused to consider single mothering, while others cited financial insecurity and age as factors in wanting an abortion.  80 per cent of the women overall I the sample said that abortion was preferable to having the baby and giving it up for adoption.

Among married women, more than half cited factors such as giving up a job, abandoning education or “damaging relationships with significant others” as reasons for their decisions.  “This suggests,” writes Krishnamoni, “that given the complexity of modern life, pregnancy may not be acceptable any more even to married women, just because it has occurred.”

More than half the married women described their marital relationship as “very satisfactory.”  One fifth said their marriage was “reasonably satisfactory” and only 27. 3 per cent said their marriage was “extremely unsatisfactory.”

A majority of the once married women felt the continuing their pregnancy “would be damaging to their personal and social lives.”  Many of these women noted that the pregnancy “was the outcome of fairly casual relationships and the partner was unaware of the pregnancy in all cases.”

Krishnamoni’s research was published in The Social Worker, Fall 1986 issue.  Her study showed a common factor in socio-economic background of the women in her sample.  They were, she writes, “from the lower middle class, subscribing to traditional family values and standards.  Nearly all of tem belonged to a religious faith and admitted to a certain degree of religiousness.  They were, therefore, aware of the religious and moral implications of abortion.  They were themselves conservative in their attitude to abortion, except for the few who had a higher level of education.”

This profile of Newfoundland women confirms the trend seen elsewhere of women seeking abortion for social and economic reasons – reasons which clearly go beyond the letter of the Criminal Code respecting abortion.

“Expectations are changing among women in the lower income groups,” Krishnamoni summarizes, “and they do not wish to settle from a pattern of life that their mothers would have accepted in the normal course of life.”

That being the case, the task to restore respect for life and traditional values appears even more important and necessary.