ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book shows that understanding the transformation of family life requires making a distinction between different levels of analysis: individual and structural. This conceptual separation leads to the identification of different explanatory variables. The book distinguishes between Egalitarians and Traditionalists, highlighting the differences in each point of view as a deliberate research strategy. It argues that people's stance on abortion often correlates with their material interests and that this fact needs to be taken into account in understanding the debate. People who are equal can regulate their fertility so that unintended pregnancies and births are rare. When faced with a pregnancy, people who say they disapprove of abortion discover that they do not want their children to "have to get married". As Lillian Rubin comments, confronted with the "choice between a teenage marriage, an adoption, and an abortion, they agonize; suffer; equivocate.
