Conceptualizing abortion as adaptive: Throwing the baby out with the bathwater?

Abstract

Here we respond to Kimport and McLemore’s (2022), Leyser-Whalen’s (2022), Mavuso’s (2022), and Shaw’s (2022) commentaries on our article (Adair & Lozano, 2022) proposing the advantages of using multiple psychological perspectives to situate abortion decisions as adaptive choices that exist in stigmatized spaces and that can increase individuals’ ability to survive and thrive. We agree that future abortion scholars should address outstanding issues (e.g., the centering of ciswomen), but we continue to endorse the value of research—including work that incorporates large-scale models—to explore the environmental, developmental, and social factors that shape reproductive decision-making.