The latest report by a pro-abortion research firm detailing fewer abortions today than at any time since the passage of Roe v. Wade is good news – but there are a few important caveats.
The report, published this week by the Guttmacher Institute, found that the number of abortions in the United States dropped to under one million. The abortion rate also declined, falling to 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 – the lowest rate ever recorded.
While this is certainly good news, there are reasons why the numbers may not be as rosy as they seem.
“The news that there may be fewer abortions taking place in the United States is a great start to the New Year, though we have to take the abortion industry’s claims with a grain of salt,” said Americans United for Life Acting President Clarke Forsythe. “In the U.S., no national reporting requirements exist for documenting the number of abortions or any of the negative consequences of the procedure.”
As Forsythe recently explained, “The U.S. abortion data and reporting system, unlike many other countries, relies completely on voluntary reporting. No federal law requires the reporting of abortion numbers, complications or deaths. (Denmark, in contrast, requires mandatory reporting by providers of all induced abortions.)”
He goes on to say that only two national organizations collect abortion data in the US – the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a private abortion advocacy group. And not all states participate.
“Even the most basic statistics about abortion — for example, the annual number in the United States provided by the CDC — is based entirely on estimates, and is therefore vulnerable to human error. How reliable can the annual number of abortions be if California, which used to report approximately one-quarter of all abortions across the nation annually, hasn’t reported its data to the CDC for several years?”
The Guttmacher Institute was named after this man, Alan F. Guttmacher, MD (1898-1974), past president of Planned Parenthood and Vice President of the American Eugenics Society
For this reason, it’s also impossible to say how safe abortion is in the US because only 26 states require providers to report injuries and complications from abortion.
Forsythe finds other potential flaws in Guttmacher’s new numbers, such as how they don’t seem to take into account reports that about 50 percent of abortions are repeat abortions. This means that the number of women who have abortions each year is closer to 500,000 or below.
“Still, we certainly hope that the Guttmacher Institute’s estimates are correct, and the number of abortions has decreased as women have chosen life rather than relying on abortion,” Forsythe says.
Another area to regard with caution is the reasons given for this decline. While Guttmacher admits that it did not directly investigate the cause of the declining rates, the report suggests potential factors contributing to the decline that are both positive and negative.
A positive factor would be increased use of contraception that allows women to better plan their pregnancies, the authors say. However, state-imposed safety regulations that have led to the closing of clinics is cited as a negative reason for the trend because it has restricted access to abortion.
“Abortion restrictions and clinic closures mean that patients may need to travel greater distances to access services,” says Rachel Jones, lead author of the study. “The majority of abortion patients—75%—are poor or low-income, and nearly two-thirds are already parents. It can be very difficult for them to arrange for time off from work, transportation and child care. While many find ways to access care despite these obstacles, some of the abortion rate decline is likely attributable to women who were prevented from accessing needed services.”
What she doesn’t mention is how the passage of those laws has had a positive effect in protecting women from the predatory and rarely accountable abortion industry. Laws requiring an ultrasound before an abortion have also saved countless lives.
“Such pictures are worth more than a thousand words when it comes to helping people understand whose lives are on the line,” Forsythe said.
Bill Donohue of the Catholic League cited another important factor in why the abortion rate is dropping – young people are becoming much less sexually active than their parents were at the same age.
“Last year, a study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior considered data collected as part of the General Social Survey,” Donohue reports. “It focused on the answers of 26,707 adults to questions regarding sex and relationships. It found that millennials are a whole lot less sexually active than their parents were at the same age. The authors of the study explained this finding by saying that today’s young people are a ‘very risk-averse generation’.”
Fear of sexually transmitted diseases plays a part in this decrease in sexual activity, “but it is also true that young people today are much more likely to know that abortion results in sudden death,” Donohue writes. “This is not due to sex ed. The credit goes to technology.”
What is needed is a more complete picture of the impact of abortion on women through verifiable tracking, Forsythe recommends. “Abortion isn’t about women’s health, it’s all about abortion control.”
But none of this changes the bottom line.
“The abortion industry is in trouble,” Donohue says. “It is losing money, and it is losing the support of youth. Look for brighter days ahead.”
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