“She should have been on birth control. What were you wearing? You should have been more careful.” Despite these arguments, abortion is not prevention. Whether you take contraception, use an intrauterine device, dress modestly, or try to “be careful,” it is impossible to completely avoid unwanted pregnancy. Women are often blamed for not doing enough to prevent pregnancy and are then judged for choosing to have an abortion. So where is the truth?
Contraception can fail to prevent pregnancy
Contraception is considered a safe form of protection against unwanted pregnancy. Yet every method carries some risk of failure. Effectiveness is measured by the so-called Pearl Index. With contraceptive use, this number ranges from 0.1 (1 in 1,000 women become pregnant per year) to 20 (200 in 1,000 women per year). This shows that medical contraception is never absolutely reliable. Even with an intrauterine device, around 1 in 1,000 women each year may experience an ectopic pregnancy when used correctly. Condoms, too, can break or leak, which counts as contraceptive failure.
What a woman wears does not mean she deserved to be assaulted or is to blame
One of the worst scenarios of unwanted pregnancy is as a result of rape. Not only are women judged for deciding to have an abortion, but they are also often accused of being responsible for the assault itself. This is known as victim blaming. Whether at home, at the police station, or in court, victims are asked what they were wearing, whether they had been drinking, or whether they had taken drugs. Such questioning creates guilt, making women feel as if they are to blame for what happened to them. But that is not the truth. The only person who can prevent rape is the perpetrator. Only the rapist is responsible for the assault, and a woman has the right to dress however she chooses.
“She wasn’t careful” is not always true
An unintended pregnancy does not necessarily mean that a woman was careless. As shown above, even when a woman is cautious—by taking contraception or dressing modestly—she cannot entirely prevent pregnancy. Whether she actively tries to avoid pregnancy or not, the statement “she wasn’t careful” is invalid. Judging whether a woman was “sufficiently preventive” is not appropriate either.