According to the Associated Press (AP), an analysis of the most recent abortion data reveals nothing new in the numbers. For the most part, their findings confirmed the fact that access to contraception does not reduce the abortion rate with more than half (54%) of the women saying they were using birth control when they got pregnant. Most were unmarried women in their 20s and 30s with 18 percent being teenaged. More than half were poor and 60 percent had at least one child.
Somewhat surprising is that three-fourths identified with a religion. Although this affiliation was mostly Protestant, more than one in four identified themselves as Catholic.
While the AP puts the total number of abortions in the U.S. at nearly one million, experts say this number is inaccurate because a few states, such as California and New Hampshire, have poor or no reporting laws. The true number is said to be somewhere between 1.2 to 1.3 million.
"Societally, a lethal cul de sac appears to have been reached," says Charles A. Donovan, former director of the National Right to Life Committee who now serves as president of the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.
"A stagnant economy with high unemployment among recent college graduates, a retreat from marriage, daunting debt, an antagonistic culture between the sexes, and persistent racial disparities in abortion rates — all combine to put more women and children at risk.
He suggests solutions to this national disgrace might be to allow pregnancy resource centers to expand in urban areas where they can reach more poor women. Young people should also be introduced to a more holistic approach to sexuality, such as that of NaPro Technology and other natural family planning methods. He also believes the debt crisis for young graduates should be recognized as a major threat to marriage and family life.
"The next generation is our hope," Donovan says, "but to meet its potential it must have hope."
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