Adesto said :

However, apart from those women (of which I'm sure there are not that many) EVERY single mother deserves respect. Why? Because rather than escape/hide the consequences of their actions through abortion, they have kept the child they conceived despite all the pressure put upon them in the public attitude towards "unwanted" or "unexpected" pregnancies. By definition, a single mother is a woman who has taken responsibility for her actions.

I disagree.  While it is admittedly an unfortunate situation I don't think that it is right to consider that not having an abortion is such a whoopdedo thing.  If I met someone and found out that they became pregnant outside of wedlock and they had to raise the child on their own, I'm not going to clap them on the back and tell them,"Great job!  You didn't have an abortion!"  In a moral society having an abortion wouldn't be a choice either way and considering that that is what we are striving to achieve, why congratulate them for it?  As the case is several (now) traditional young women that I have known that have had an abortion in no way blame modern societal attitudes for their sin, and it would be inappropriate to do so.  That is not to say that society and environment doesn't contribute to the average person's accepted morals, but when it comes to abortion (killing) it is different.  We are all born with natural law that tells us that killing is not acceptable.  Congratulating someone or giving someone respect on the sole grounds that they didn't have an abortion is the equivalent of respecting someone for not committing murder