Out-of-Wedlock Abortion and Delivery: The Importance of the Male Partner

When a single pregnant woman has an abortion, it is often assumed that her relationship to her male partner will break up, either before the abortion or afterwards. This study compares the relationships of 139 single women who had abortions with those of 109 single women who chose to have their babies. Women who abort, while less strongly tied to their partners before becoming pregnant, are no more likely to end their relationships six weeks or one year after the abortion than are women who deliver. However, abortion recipients who have strong, loving relationships with their partners after the abortion experience greater adverse emotional reactions and dissatisfaction with their abortion than do abortion recipients with weaker relationships. Compared with single women who choose not to abort, the forces acting to separate an abortion recipient from her partner are present before pregnancy and abortion, and not necessarily triggered by the experience. A loving relationship may increase a single woman's ambivalence about having an abortion.