Unclear understandings of crucial pregnancy details can lead to misinformed discussions about restricting abortion.
Florida passed a new law on May 1, 2024, prohibiting abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, except for documented cases of rape, incest, or to protect the mother's life. This brings the state in line with most southern states, which have implemented either total bans or highly restrictive laws since the Supreme Court abolished the federal right to obtain an abortion in June 2022. These laws often set a specific number of weeks as the cutoff for abortion.
Supporters of the six-week abortion ban, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, have praised it as the ultimate abortion policy. Republicans in Florida endorse the measure as a balanced compromise between a complete abortion ban and a lack of restrictions.
Although 6 weeks after conception marks the start of the fetus' development, it's crucial to consider when people usually discover their pregnancies. According to research, the average woman realizes she's pregnant at 5 ½ weeks and for about one-fourth, it's 7 weeks or later. So, what do individuals behind six-week bans truly comprehend about timing and dating of pregnancy?
As political science, gender, and public opinion scholars, we're writing a book on public opinion post-June 2022's Supreme Court overturn of the federal abortion right. To investigate this concern, we posed two questions about pregnancy aspects in a research survey carried out in late September 2023. It attracted 1,356 participants, resembling the broader American population. With a median age of 46, 49% were men, 70% white, 29% college-educated, 43% Democrats, and 38% Republicans.
Understanding Pregnancy
Question 1 probed how pregnancies are dated. The correct answer is that pregnancies are reckoned from the last menstrual period, which usually is 2-3 weeks prior to conception.
Question 2 inquired about trimesters. Americans are often aware of this term, and surveys consistently indicate that they accept abortion most during the first trimester. We tested how many respondents knew the duration of a trimester, which is 13 weeks.
Pregnancy Knowledge among Americans
It turned out that only a third of the participants knew the correct pregnancy dating method, while 60% mistakenly deemed it connects to conception or the time since the woman's last intercourse. Interestingly, less than a quarter responded both pregnancy facts correctly.
Regarding six-week abortion bans, we found that most Americans disapprove of them - only 35% support the measure. Remarkably, respondents supporting these bans are less likely to have accurate knowledge about pregnancy timing than others. This relationship remains in analyses accounting for potential confounding factors.
History shows some anti-abortion officials have shown a lack of pregnancy awareness; for instance, certain politicians have claimed that it's exceptionally rare for a rape survivor to conceive. Our survey indicates that a significant portion of those against abortion is deficient in basic pregnancy understanding.
Essentially, our findings call into question whether individuals uneducated in medical matters have the necessary expertise to control abortion access. Notably, Florida's six-week restriction will render access much more challenging there and also affect people from neighboring states seeking abortions. In 2023, Florida housed the nearest abortion clinic for 6.4 million women in the South. In the same year, around 7,700 individuals from other southern states, where abortion is now banned, traveled to Florida for abortions.
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- Despite the specific cutoff periods set in six-week abortion bans, many individuals may not yet be aware of their pregnancies at this stage, given that the average woman realizes her pregnancy at 5 ½ weeks or later.
- It's alarming that those who support six-week abortion bans, whose implementation could make abortion access challenging, often demonstrate a lack of understanding about the actual timing and dating of pregnancy.
Source: edition.cnn.com
