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Abortion is a life-altering decision that can shape a woman's future. For decades, the controversy behind abortions and whether or not they should be legal has been the subject of many debates. For pro-life legislators, their goal has been centered on reducing the number of abortions by making the decision to choose abortion difficult. These pro-life advocates have passed an ultrasound law in 10 states that require women to have an ultrasound before making a decision. In a new study, researchers reported that an ultrasound does not change a woman's decision to go through with the abortion.

For this study, which is one of the largest ones so far, researchers analyzed data on 15,575 women. The medical records came from an abortion care provider located in Los Angeles, CA. The data consisted of information on the women's decision to have an abortion. The women were divided into high, medium and low decision certainty based on their answers. The researchers found that only 7.4 percent of the females fell into the medium and low certainty groups.

All of the women in the sample set had received an ultrasound with only 42.5 percent of them agreeing to see it. Out of that percentage, 98.4 percent of them decided to get an abortion. The researchers discovered that the 1.6 percent of the women who decided to keep their pregnancy were from the medium to low decision certainty groups. The researchers concluded that if a woman is certain that she wants the abortion, an ultrasound would not affect her decision.

On the other hand, there is also evidence that an ultrasound could change the minds of women who are unsure about getting an abortion. In that regards, an ultrasound could make the decision to have an abortion a lot more difficult. However, pro-life advocates who claim that ultrasounds are very convincing for the majority of women have no evidence supporting their statement.

The study was published in the journal, Obstetric & Gynecology.