Surprise, Surprise

BREAKING! Men happier about surprise pregnancy than women (link to the PDF of the survey there).

In order to gauge the “surprise fetus” reaction, NCPTUP [National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy] researchers first isolated survey respondents who claimed it was “very important or somewhat important for them to avoid pregnancy right now.” Then, researchers asked them how they would feel about an unplanned pregnancy:

If you found out today that (you were/your partner was) pregnant, how would you feel: Very upset, a little upset, a little pleased, very pleased, wouldn’t care.

Results: Staggeringly gendered! Forty-three percent of young men responded that they would be “a little pleased” or “very pleased” by the news; only 20 percent of women answered the same. Men also proved more comfortable with an unplanned pregnancy at an earlier age: Thirty-four percent of men 18-19 said they would be pleased. By the time they reach age 20-24, 42 percent of men said they would be pleased. And over 50 percent of men aged 25-29 would be pleased by the news. Remember: this is only among men who deemed it “important” that a pregnancy not occur at this junction.

And, presumably, these are not the guys actively sabotaging their partners' birth control.

I ran into this story while doing my regular rounds of the dark places fetus fetishists hang out. Look how LifeShite spins it:

A new survey that has an impact on the abortion debate shows men are more likely to be happy with an unexpected pregnancy than women. The survey gives further credence to the idea that women who have an abortion thinking their boyfriend or husband would not be supportive should think again.

Yeah, riiiiight. I'm going to gamble that my bf is among the 43% who are going to be 'a little pleased' and not among the 57% who are going to head for the hills. There's a winning strategy. And even if he is 'pleased' by the pregnancy, how pleased is he going to be by an actual noisy smelly baby? How pleased is he going to be by at least 18 years of expense?

And more on the gender divide. I was going to title this 'More from the "Well, Duh" File'. But when I told my sweetie about this survey, he was surprised that it was the guys who were more likely to be pleased by a surprise pregnancy.

In turn, I was surprised by his surprise.

Are you surprised?