in brief: study finds that ultrasounds don’t stop abortions

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A recent study has found that, despite what some anti-choice campaigners believe, receiving an ultrasound is not guaranteed to change a woman’s mind about having the baby aborted.

Conservative anti-abortion campaigner, Rebecca Campos-Duffy, last year stated that, upon having an ultrasound, ‘upwards of 90 percent of [the women] decide not to have an abortion.’

Pro-choice experts beg to differ. The study, published in the Obstetrics & Gynecology journal, found that out of 15, 575 women who requested an abortion, only forty-two percent who even consented to the ultrasound, took up the chance to look at it.

The results of the test are enough to know the Campos-Duffy’s comments are completely false. Of the group that didn’t look at their ultrasound, 99 percent terminated their pregnancy. Of the group that did see it, 98.4 percent still terminated.

Further to these findings, it was discovered that the women who actually changed their minds about terminating, came from the group of women who were unsure about their abortions from the beginning.

These results show that ultrasounds should not be used to persuade women against having an abortion.

While anti-choicers are unlikely to change their minds about this, this study shows, amongst other things, that the laws that force women to undergo an ultrasound are not as well-meaning as anti-abortion campaigners believe.

Though this study shows that women are entirely capable of making their own decisions regarding their bodies, and rightly so, the world obviously still has a long way to go in terms of acceptance for pro-choice.