You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.
This story originally ran in the Apr. 9, 1982, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.
According to the results of a Sidelines survey, it appears MTSU students are as divided on the issue of abortion as American society in general is.
Sidelines issued 600 questionaires before spring break that asked students questions ranging from their feelings about abortion to their sexual activity on and off campus.
Of those responding to the Sidelines survey, about 52 percent say they are either “strongly for” or “for” abortion, while 48 percent say they are “oppossed” or “strongly oppossed.”
The number of men responding positively on the issue exceeded the number of women by 1 percent; however, two-thirds more women marked “strongly for” than men. who more often said they were “for” abortion.
Slightly more than half of the women against abortion say they are “strongly opposed,” and two-thirds of the men marked that choice over “opossed.”
One-third of the women responding to the questionaire say they have had abortions. Most of them said they were “strongly for” abortion, though 2 percent answered that they were either “oppossed” or “strongly oppossed.”
About one-fourth of the men answering the survey say their sexual partners have had abortions, and the majority of them marked they were “strongly for” abortion. Two percent picked the “strongly oppossed” answer.
“I am not really for or against [abortion], but think women should have the right to choose,” wrote one 20-year-old female respondent.
Another student added the word “murder!” to his “strongly oppossed” response. Why do some young women choose to terminate their pregnancies rather than carry them to term? One MTSU coed, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition her name would be withheld, said abortion was the “only choice” she could make.
“When I found out I was pregnant, I knew that it was the only thing I could do,” she said. “I could not have left school and given up my career plans to have a baby.”
This young woman said she “went into a kind of shock” at the news of her pregnancy.
“It was certainly not anything I thought would happen to me,” she continued. “And [an unwanted pregnancy) is] something I never want to face again.”
“I went through it totally numb,” she added. “It wasn’t until after it was all over that the reality hit me. I went through the motions very matter of factly, and then I cried.” Many single pregnant women get married, some face the responsibility of parenting alone.
One such woman said this of her choice: “It was not the time for me to marry, but I couldn’t bring myself to have an abortion. I loved my boyfriend, and I decided to go ahead and have the baby. It’s a choice I’ll never regret.”
“It hasn’t been easy,” she added. In the October 1981 issue of Ms., several women who gave their babies up to adoption agencies—”birthmothers”— wrote of their experiences. “We are an untapped source of support for prochoice,” wrote one woman. “Our silence helps those who would deny us the right to seek an abortion.”
To contact the Sidelines 100 editor, email sidelines100@mtsusidelines.com.
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