The effects of abortion on perceived sex role

We investigated the effect of abortion on the sex role attitudes of 118 women undergoing the procedure. Perceived femininity, masculinity, and androgyny were measured during the week preceding the abortion, and then at 2 weeks and 3 months following the abortion. Because the decision to abort requires assertiveness not common to the traditional female role and a denial of maternity, we expected that postabortion femininity scores would decrease and masculinity scores would increase, resulting in greater androgyny. While no significant differences in femininity scores were found across the 3 testing times, masculinity and androgyny scores differed significantly from the first to third and second to third testing times.