This space has spent much ink detailing abortion's terrible effects on women. But why do women have abortions in the first place? The reasons are innumerable; the Alan Guttmacher institute reports that an average woman gives 4 reasons for having an abortion. One recent study discovered an unexpected influence: the dad's involvement in raising a previous child.
Drawing on statistics from Princeton University's Fragile Families and Well-Being Study, Priscilla Coleman and her co-workers surveyed hospitals in sixteen American cities. The survey focused on families which already had one child and were identified as "fragile": along with poor financial and educational factors, 87% of the couples were not married. Interestingly, over 75% of the women indicated that the father of the first child was also the father of the second one.
The survey found that women were more likely to abort a second child if the father was poor in taking care of the first one. If the mom could not trust the dad to "watch the child for a week," "take good care of the child," "watch the child when the mothers needs to do things," or "does not support the mother's way of raising the child," the second child was in danger of being aborted.
The study found that factors usually expected to result in abortion-including a child with frequent sicknesses, a hard-to-manage child, or a low level of income-did not push moms toward abortion. Though material factors are of course important, these moms said a man who would help her with child-rearing was more important.
What do we learn from these results? Men can protect their unborn children-and benefit the whole family-by taking good care of their born children. Common sense dictates that everyone in the family prospers from an active, involved, loving dad. It also appears that future generations are more likely to enter life if fathers fulfill their protecting, providing, and supporting role.
May all fathers reading this column step forward and take care of their wives and children, for the sake of current and future generations. May Swaziland build a culture of life.
Rudy Poglitsh
rpoglitsh@live.com
