Welcome to Gaia! ::

I just want to add another perspective to this, that of the women who would not resort to illegal abortions (because of this very fear).

I won't touch on the emotional impact of having a child who is not wanted because that's being done in a different thread. However, here is my story of an economic impact:

My husband's parents had three children. They were extremely poor because, while he was university educated, it was very difficult in Russia to get a good job if you didn't have mob or government connections. Nearly their entire paycheck went into making sure that their children had clothes and food. What little they had extra after this was stashed away so that they could someday leave the country. They never went out to dinner, never went to movies, never got to do any of the things we, who are for the most part relatively rich, take for granted. Why? Because of their desparation to get out.

Then they got pregnant for a fourth time. They had a choice. They could stop stashing money away to provide for a new child, severely reduce the quality of life for the entire family so that they could provide for the new child and continue putting away money, or not have the child. The first two options would mean sacrificing the quality of life for their three BORN children.

Had they had the fourth child, they would either have had to permanently give up hopes of ever leaving Russia or raise their children in EXTREME poverty (not the kind of poverty that means not getting new toys, but the kind of poverty that comes with continual hunger because there isn't enough money for food). Had they never left Russia, my husband would have been forced to join the army. Instead of being happy and healthy here with me, he would be fighting in Chechnya right now (if he had even lived this long).

So the choice was made and the fourth pregnancy was terminated. And the BORN children continued their lives of financial struggle (but not extreme poverty) for another decade, and then they moved to Canada. One potential person was sacrificed. The quality of life for five actual people was preserved.