A 2001 symposium at Geneva University Hospital examined the couple relationships and sex lives of 103 women for 6 months before and after an abortion. They noted that the quality of the couple relationship remained the same before and after the abortion. If the relationship was previously well, it remained so afterwards. If the couple had previous difficulties, they were not solved by the abortion. The stability of a couple played a role in the decision to abort.

Partner-related problems are a frequently stated reason for abortion. A 2004 U.S. study found that 48% of women who chose abortion cited relationship problems or a desire to avoid single motherhood as one of their main reasons, with 8.2% citing partner-related problems as the leading reason. Between 2008 and 2010, 31% of U.S. women cited partner-related issues as one of their main reasons. Sometimes a woman may have an abortion to try and save a failing relationship, which usually doesn’t work. These factors help explain the apparent association of abortion with relationship breakup (which is often cited by anti-abortionists), but correlation does not equal causation. The causes of relationship breakups are often varied and generally precede the abortion.

Sources:

Psychische Folgen – Mythen und Fakten, 2001 (in German)

Contraception, Reasons why women have induced abortions: a synthesis of findings from 14 countries (2017)

Guttmacher Institute, Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives (2005)