When Married Women Have Abortions: Spousal Notification and Marital Interaction

Data from a survey of 506 women undergoing abortion at a family planning clinic in Illinois suggest that the assumption that spousal notification promotes marital harmony is plausible only for the subset of women whose marriages are already harmonious. In this sample 89.5% of the women told their husband or boyfriend about the pregnancy and 82.5% of these men were appraised of the womans decision to terminate the pregnancy. 8% of the married women in this sample did not inform their husband of the pregnancy either because the pregnancy was a result of an extramarital affair or there were already serious marital difficulties. 11 of the 20 married women who chose not to inform their husbands compared with none of the women who did reveal the pregnancy expressed fears that their husband would insist that they continue with the pregnancy. 75% of women in the former group compared with only 6% of the latter group reported significant marital discord. The women who chose not to inform their husbands of their pregnancy had reasons to expect responses such as anger withdrawal of financial support denial of paternity physical or verbal abuse and interference with the womans right to determine the action taken. In general the surveys findings suggest that women in intimate relationships are capable of making educated guesses regarding the effect notification will have on their relationships. A strong notification statute would thus tend to exacerbate marital disharmony and perhaps cause harm to women. An estimated 16000 of the women in the US who undergo abortion each year are considered not to tell their husbands of the procedure.