34 Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health

Women base their decision to have an abortion on their current life setting, even though having an abortion may conflict with their moral or religious beliefs. Researchers who conducted in-depth interviews with women with un-wanted pregnancies found that the decision whether to have a surgical abortion or carry a pregnancy to term was based more on practical and personal considerations than on po-litical and ethical arguments about abortion.1 A study of Puerto Rican women who had decided to have an abortion revealed that women integrated their decisions with other parts of their lives and considered how their lives and re-lationships might change if they did not have an abortion.2 These women sought to maintain their current identities, preserve their emotional and physical health, cope with the threat of abandonment by their partners after giving birt