An Experience of Abortion in Men’s Reports

Abstract

The paper discusses the findings of a research whose aim was to answer the following question: what traces are there in a father’s psyche left by abortion? 20 statements have been analyzed as regards their contents, factors which facilitate the decision about abortion have been described, as well as the models of decision making process with regard to abortion and the psycho-social consequences of abortion.

The psycho-social consequences of abortion, as felt by men, deserve our particular attention. The analysis of the respondents’ statements dealing with the evaluation of abortion has proved that there is a correlation: the degree of religiousness, an opinion on the beginning of human life, an attitude towards the penalization of abortion vs. the experience of the consequence of abortion. The respondents who do not relate any increase in religiousness after abortion report a dislike for the Catholic Church and regard the moment a child’s birth as the beginning of human life. Accordingly, they are for abortion "on demand", they are of the opinion that abortion has not caused any negative consequences in their life. The second group of respondents reports an increase in the degree of their religious commitment after abortion, a change in their opinions on the beginning of human life (most of them think that one is a human being from the very moment of conception), therefore they are staunch opponents of abortion. They report negative consequences of abortion: sense of guilt, pricks of conscience, despair, regret, and sadness.