Why does the American man from "Hills Like White Elephants" want Jig to get an abortion?

Hemingway's story sounds autobiographical. He
was accustomed to making up stories out of his own personal experiences. He admired authors like
Stephen Crane and Joseph Conrad who got their inspiration in the same way.

If he wrote it he could get rid of it. He had gotten rid of many
things by writing them.                                                                        
                                     -

We know he was
living in Europe while trying to get started as a freelance writer. He liked seeing new people
and places, because these stimulated his imagination. He also liked the fact that it was
possible to buy any kind of liquor in Europe when drinking was considered a crime in America.
Not only was liquor fully available, but it was cheap. Everything was cheap relative to the
American dollar, which was why so many artists were attracted to Europe in the 1920s. In it
would appear that the couple is being charged the equivalent of about four American cents for
two big glasses of beer.

Hemingway had a hard time selling his early stories.
Editors considered them unfinished and pointless. They called them "sketches,"
"slices of life," and "vignettes." (If you compare a story like Stephen
Cranes The Blue Hotel with Hemingways Hills Like White Elephants you can see what the
editors expected in the stories they were buying and why they were rejecting Hemingways.) John
Steinbeck once said:

The profession of book writing makes
horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.

When Jig
says, "Doesn't it mean anything to you? We could get along," she is addressing what
she knows is at the root of their problem, which is money. She is obviously young and
inexperienced. She only thinks they could get along in Europe with a baby and that everything
else would be the same as before. The man knows the baby would change everything.

Hemingway didn't need much money to survive in Europe, but even getting small sums of
money for his stories was hard. He confessed that he would sometimes break into tears when he
received another rejected manuscript back in the mail. No doubt there have been many aspiring
writers who have felt the same way.

Hemingway was married and his wife Hadley
had a baby. No doubt this was a threatening event for Hemingway because it would mean having to
settle down and earn more money. The American just isn't ready for fatherhood. He knows he will
be giving up his freedom before he has had a chance to establish himself in his chosen
profession. Hemingway does not specify that the American is an aspiring writer, but it seems
likely. 

There are hundreds, thousands of youths who enter
upon the hard calling of the arts with extravagant hopes; but for the most part they come to
terms with their mediocrity and find somewhere in life a niche where they can escape
starvation.

                                             
                                                                    Somerset Maugham

Many people who read Hills Like White Elephants want to know What happened? Did Jig
go ahead with the abortion? If so, how did that affect their relationship? If not, how did
that affect their relationship? No doubt many of the readers who ask such
questions feel like the editors back in the States who were so coldly rejecting Hemingways
stories.