The Key to Eliminating Abortion

I firmly believe that the key to eliminating abortion is to find out what the woman who is considering it is most afraid of, and then help her to overcome that fear without having the abortion, in other words, show her the options that she cannot see in that moment.  What is the fear that is causing her to believe or think that abortion is her only option?  Is it that she won't be a good mom, or is it that she feels she won't be able to financially handle having a child, is she alone in her pregnancy and needs assistance, is she afraid of what others will say, or afraid of disappointing and making her parents upset, is she afraid of losing her boyfriend/husband?  There could be a million different reasons, but I am absolutely convinced that if we could figure out what that fear was and assure her that she can overcome that fear, we would be extremely close to ending abortion as a viable option.
I remember the fear so vividly.  It was definitely the strongest and most powerful force in making my abortion choices.  The first time, I was in the middle of a separation from my first husband, and barely able to care for myself and my infant son that I already had, physically, emotionally, financially, and mentally.  Every coping skill I had was already burned beyond recognition, I had used them all up trying to save my marriage and being a mommy, when I wasn't ready to be a mommy yet, and being so far away from my support system also didn't help.  I was so naive, I didn't understand about it being easy to conceive after having a baby ( an many other things), and I couldn't take birth control pills, because they turn me into a raving lunatic.  I was so afraid that I couldn't do it all, that I wouldn't be able to survive having another child at that time.  Abortion seemed like the only option, the only way for me to survive.  It wasn't about being inconvenienced, it was about survival for me.
The second time, I remember overwhelming fear of what my mother would say, of how angry she would be, and how disappointed my father would be, how I would have "shamed the family name," by being pregnant and unmarried.  I was raised in a very conservative, religious home, and always taught that sex outside of marriage was wrong.  I was also worried about what my fellow teachers would say about me, not to mention my students, after all, I was the one in the front of the classroom talking about abstinence to them.  I had always been taught to fear what others may think about me, as if it was the end of the world if one of the neighbors thought poorly of you.  I must have heard, "what would the neighbors say," a thousand times growing up in my home.  I was taught not to have thoughts and feelings of my own, but to believe what others thought and believed and to go along with it, and "not rock the boat..."  I was in a committed, loving relationship, but my boyfriend at the time, my husband now, did not ask me to marry him, and in fact was thinking about moving to a nearby county around this same time to be nearer to his two young children, whose mother was moving them away.  I felt so alone, and so afraid for the same reasons again as the first time, with all of the other reasons added on the top of that. 
I DID NOT want to have the abortions that I had.  I did not want to do it either time.  I was so afraid for so many reasons, I can't even name them all, but I remember the fear being overwhelming, suffocating and gripping that I felt paralyzed to do anything else.  I thought it was my only option.  I could not see another way, either time, no other way.  It was as if I was tied up, bound and gagged.  I felt I had no other choice to make, even though now, I see clearly that I did, both times.  I needed someone there to tell me that I could do it, to help me see the route to take, to support me in keeping my babies.

This is why I say, if we can eliminate the fear, we can eliminate the terminations of unplanned pregnancies.  For me, fear is the crux (defined by the dictionary as: something that torments by its puzzling nature; a perplexing difficulty) of the issue.  I would guess that it is the single most decisive factor in abortive women.