Abortion rates have dropped to record lows in America—and it’s probably not the restrictive laws doing it, either.
The New York Times reported on new numbers from the Guttmacher Institute (which is pro-choice). The group found something like 862,000 abortions in 2017, a 200,000 drop from 2011. “Abortion rates decreased in almost every state and there’s no clear pattern linking these declines to new restrictions,” said senior state policy manager Elizabeth Nash. The Times continued:
“If restrictions were the main driver across the board, we’d expect birthrates to increase,” said Ms. Nash, a writer of the policy analysis.
She said that in four of the states that enacted new restrictions between 2011 and 2017 — North Carolina, Mississippi, Wyoming and Georgia — abortion rates actually rose. More than half the decline in the number of abortions during that time happened in states that did not pass restrictive abortion laws, she said.
If anything, it’s probably increased popularity and access to IUDs under Obamacare and other initiatives. In fact, in some states, the number of clinics increased and abortion rates actually dropped, leading Nash to suggest the possibility that, “in some of the states that opened new clinics, there are simultaneous efforts that support access to health care, including reproductive health care and sex education.”
Almost like all those restrictions aren’t actually about reducing abortion rates, but controlling women!