Lisa Marie Presley’s Regretful Abortion is a Reminder that Abortion Hurts Men, Too
By: Jordan Estabrook, SFLA News, originally published October 15, 2024, StudentsForLife.org
Elvis Presley’s only daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, passed away in 2023, but not without leaving a strong message on abortion in her posthumous memoir, highlighting not only her deep regret but the anguish it caused her boyfriend at the time and later first husband, Danny Keough.
Presley’s first marriage to Danny Keough was rife with difficulties and conflict. When Presley was 17, and Keough was 21, they began dating and later suffered an ectopic pregnancy. However, Presley’s trauma and connection to Keough led her to get pregnant with Keough again purposefully, but instead of suffering an ectopic pregnancy, she chose an abortion. According to Business Insider, Presley describes her and Keough as “destroyed.”
“That second time, I didn’t know what to do, and neither did Danny,” she said. “I ended up having an abortion. And it was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done in my whole life. I was devastated. I did it and we both cried. We were both destroyed and not long after that we fell apart and broke up. I couldn’t live with myself.”
While they would later go on to have children Riley and Benjamin, as Presley describes being “in love with being a mom” and seeing her firstborn Riley as the “most precious gem,” Presley’s inclusion of Keough in her abortion story points to an often overlooked third party in these tragic scenarios – fathers.
Students for Life of America (SFLA) has constantly brought up the point that abortion supporters conveniently ignore that abortion hurts women physically and mentally. There is a plethora of studies to prove it, specifically from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, which covers Chemical Abortion Pill Emergency Room (ER) visits, abortion regret, dangerous physical symptoms, and mental health issues. Always, Chemical Abortion Pills take the life of an innocent preborn baby and even cause death and infertility for mothers.
Sadly, very little empirical research has been done on how abortion harms men. Just this year, SFLA recently shared the story of Tommy Kearns, who lost his daughter, Clementine, at five months in the womb. Many post-abortive fathers mirror Keough and Kearns’ devastation.
A 2015 study by Catherine T. Coyle and Vincent M. Rue showed that “the investigators have found that most men do not find elective abortion to be an easy experience…Rather, reports indicate that men tend to find the experience to be distressing, with a large majority of them describing abortion as a difficult experience that left them with lingering and disturbing.”
They also reported the following:
“Other adverse outcomes include emasculation (Holmes, 2004; Reich, 2008; Rue, 1985), sexual dysfunction (Berger, 1994; Rothstein, 1977b), and relationship problems or relationship failure.”
Presley and Keough’s marriage came to an end in 1994. While it’s unclear how Keough feels now about the abortion, it would be no surprise if he carries that guilt with him, given the many men who have come forward with their painful stories. In Coyle and Rue’s study, they left an area for men to share their abortion stories. Three men wrote:
“I was a father one day and not the next. She told me she had a miscarriage, then I got a call from the abortion clinic, she forgot her medication. I have never felt so awful in my life. (2 years postabortion).”
“I would have made an excellent father, and I feel now at my age (49) my chance has probably gone. And this makes me sad. (9 years postabortion).”
“I wish I could know more about the baby. I often imagine what he/she would look like now. (13 years postabortion).”
Presley’s openness and honesty about her and Keough’s abortion will hopefully give both women and men an opportunity to discuss abortion regret and encourage women considering abortion to choose life.
Jordan Estabrook graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and serves the Pro-Life Generation as a press specialist and online editor.
Images from Students for Life of America.org