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LONDON, ONTARIO, October 13, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) — The Journal of Sex Research has published a study which found that over the long term, men and women who view pornography are more likely to support abortion.

Researchers from Ontario's Western University used a long-term U.S. study, involving nearly 11,000 men and over 14,000 women, who were surveyed every one to two years starting in 1973.

The study, by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, asked participants about their pornography viewing habits, as well as various topics relating to the equality of women in society, including abortion.

Psychology and Sociology experts Taylor Kohut, Jodie L. Baer and Brendan Watts published their conclusions from the U.S. study under the title, Is Pornography Really about ‘Making Hate to Women’?

What they found was a correlation between porn viewing and increased support for abortion. Given their findings, they said, porn users could be “useful allies” for those who are fighting for “reproductive autonomy and bodily integrity.”

Participants' support for abortion was rated on a scale of 1 to 3, with one meaning strong support for abortion, and three being opposition to abortion. 

Among men who viewed porn, support for abortion was rated at 1.74, as opposed to 1.90 for those who did not watch porn – a statistically significant difference. Among women, porn users rated at 1.77, compared to 1.95 for women who did not watch porn.

The researchers speculated that pornography could be “activating scripts for sexual liberalism.”

The researchers dismissed the theory that “pornography users may support abortion so that they can enjoy more recreational sex, free from the consequences imposed by child rearing.” Because many porn users were still uncertain in their views about abortion, or viewed abortion negatively, “it does not appear to be reasonable to argue that pornography promotes wide-scale support for abortion as an alternative method of birth control on such evidence alone,” they argued.

The Family Research Council has long claimed that porn viewing increases abortion and sex trafficking. FRC’s Director of the Center for Human Dignity, Arina Grossu notes the science that backs up that claim.

Mark Houck, co-founder of The King’s Men, commented, “The majority of abortions are committed on women in relationships outside of the context of marriage,” and he connects the explosion of fornication and adultery to the porn industry. Houck says pornography fuels infidelity by separating the pleasure of sexual activity from the “free-faithful-fruitful-total context of spousal love.”

Anti-porn activist Jonathon van Maren summarizes the effect of porn on society and its possible connection to abortion, saying: “Pornography has…reduced women to the level of objects. And if our porn culture increasingly sees women as sex objects, how easy is it to see their pre-born children as 'clumps of cells'?”