1. Orientation to Individual Survival (Pre-conventional Morality).
At this base level, women who sought an abortion were looking out for themselves. They usually felt alone in a hostile world and were unable to look beyond their own self-interest. When eighteen-year-old Susan was asked what she thought when she found out she was pregnant, she said, "I really didn’t think anything except that I didn’t want it." At this egocentric level there is no feeling of "should." Gilligan calls it "moral nihilism." The only problem of choice women face here is getting in touch with what they really want. Another teenager, Josie, tried to balance her desire to "have a baby that I could take care of.. . " with the reality that as a mother, "you can’t be out of the house all the time, which is one thing I like to do."