"Addie" underwent an abortion, done by Marvin K. Levin at Family Planning Centers on November 1, 1978. When she returned on December 20 for her follow-up appointment, she told them that she still felt pregnant, but staff insisted that the abortion had been successful. Addie went to a clinic for a pregnancy test on January 9 of 1979, and was informed that she was indeed still pregnant. By then, Addie was 14 weeks pregnant and decided to carry to term after all.
Cases like Addie's should cause a reassessment of the belief that abortion answers a true need. After all, if Addie's November 1, 1978 assessment that having her baby would ruin her life had been accurate, wouldn't she still have been just as "in need of an abortion" come January 9?
If abortion is a true need, the need wouldn't change based on a couple of weeks having passed. So what happened to Addie between November 1 and January 9? What happened to all those other women in between the day they got on the abortion table, and they day they found out they'd been given a second chance?
Had all of them won the lottery? Had all of them married great men with fantastic jobs, who just loved kids? Had all of them undergone sudden religious conversions? Had all of them had some massive life-changing event between the day they'd submitted to abortions and the day they'd decided that they really didn't need abortions after all?
Or is there something else behind the way so many women, after learning that the abortion didn't kill the baby after all, change their minds?
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