I know a little about the delays, having once volunteered with a group that made loans to women who couldn't afford abortions. Often the women hadn't even been able to afford an early abortion, and by the time they found out about the loans the pregnancy had progressed. Also, food insecurity can disrupt the menstrual cycle, lives full of crisis can make it hard to focus on anything, and denial/hoping it's not true can be a powerful force, particularly in teenage girls. When I was teaching in a community college I heard of one case where a very overweight woman with irregular periods didn't know she was pregnant until she went into labor; no telling what she would have decided had she found out about the pregnancy earlier.
I also had quite a few students who had gone through with pregnancies because they didn't believe in abortion, and were in school to become able to support the children; one got pregnant a second time while she was a student, and with great anguish had an abortion. One male student wrote a paper in praise of his girlfriend, who had decided to have the baby and thus inspired him to stop doing drugs and get a job and make himself into a responsible father. Would that there were more like him.
I know a little about the delays, having once volunteered with a group that made loans to women who couldn't afford abortions. Often the women hadn't even been able to afford an early abortion, and by the time they found out about the loans the pregnancy had progressed. Also, food insecurity can disrupt the menstrual cycle, lives full of crisis can make it hard to focus on anything, and denial/hoping it's not true can be a powerful force, particularly in teenage girls. When I was teaching in a community college I heard of one case where a very overweight woman with irregular periods didn't know she was pregnant until she went into labor; no telling what she would have decided had she found out about the pregnancy earlier.
I also had quite a few students who had gone through with pregnancies because they didn't believe in abortion, and were in school to become able to support the children; one got pregnant a second time while she was a student, and with great anguish had an abortion. One male student wrote a paper in praise of his girlfriend, who had decided to have the baby and thus inspired him to stop doing drugs and get a job and make himself into a responsible father. Would that there were more like him.