Got an e-mail from the fine folks at the RNC today, and, since we're members of the reality-based community, I thought I'd give it some ink here. Apparently, the claims that abortions went up under Smirky were all wet.
FactCheck.org, relying on a study by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute, posted its summary here: http://www.factcheck.org/article330.html.
What it found was that the number of abortions decreased nationwide - by 0.8% in 2001 and by another 0.8% in 2002. The abortion rate , which is the number of women having abortions relative to the total population, also decreased 1% in 2001 and 0.9% in 2002. That's not as rapid a decrease as had been seen in earlier years, but it is a decrease nonetheless.
We give much weight to Guttmacher's analysis. Their figures are widely used and accepted by both anti-abortion groups and abortion-rights advocates. Their surveys of abortion providers go back to 1973, and Stassen [who did the earlier, preliminary study that showed abortions going up under Bush 43] cites them himself as the source for the number of abortions in 2000.
Guttmacher has little motive to make Bush and his anti-abortion policies look good. The institute was founded in 1968 in honor of a former president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and describes its mission as being" to protect the reproductive choice of all women and men in the United States and throughout the world." Had Stassen's numbers proven accurate, the Institute "would have reported and widely publicized a rise in abortion rates," said Darabi. But facts are facts.
While I like the idea of fewer abortions, we should nevertheless keep our eye on the ball: the prevention of unwanted pregnancies.
That requires comprehensive sex education, affordable contraception, and pharmacists who don't put their Puritanical morality ahead of their customers' needs.
I have always believed that abortion should be legal, and I will continue to fight efforts to make abortions so hard to get that even rape victims and abused teenagers can't get them.
It should be a last resort, but in the real world, legal abortions are far better than the alternative.
Nevertheless, Democrats (including, apparently Howard Dean, John Kerry, and Hillary Clinton, who have used the now-debunked "abortions going up under Bush" statistic) should wean ourselves off this now unsubstantiated report.