Study Finds That Increased Federal Aid For Low-Income Women Can Lower Abortion Rates

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Public Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 18 Sep 2008 - 8:00 PDT

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Increased federal assistance for low-income women can significantly reduce abortion rates, according to a new study from Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, the Tennessean reports.

Co-author Joseph Wright said the study aimed to understand a drop in the U.S. abortion rate that began in the 1990s. According to statistics from the Guttmacher Institute, abortions in the U.S. peaked at 1.6 million in 1990 but dropped to 1.31 million by 2000. In 2005, the last year for which statistics are available, the number was 1.2 million. Wright said states that provided more generous assistance to families had a 20% lower abortion rate than other states. "This is not a call for more social spending in the aggregate," Wright said, adding, "It's a call for more targeted assistance. That's a very different framework than saying, 'just throw more money at the problem.'"

Wright suggested that lifting what is known as the "family cap" -- an element of welfare law that does not permit recipients to receive additional aid for additional children -- would decrease the abortion rate by 15%. According to the Tennessean, although welfare critics in the 1990s claimed that low-income women had more children to get assistance prior to implementation of the family cap, Wright said that low-income women on average have had the same number of pregnancies since the measure went into law. But without the additional assistance, more women had abortions instead of giving birth, he added. Welfare critics "had good intentions of helping move families from welfare to work, but they didn't think through the consequences for abortion," Wright said.

Rachel Jones, senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, said the study reflects the "often-overlooked reality" that low-income women are much more likely to have an abortion when faced with an unplanned pregnancy. According to a 2000 study of more than 10,000 women, the abortion rate among women living at the poverty line is 44 abortions per 1,000 women. The rate drops to 10 abortions per 1,000 women among women with family incomes three times the poverty line. Jones said, "In the public debate, there's seldom a human face to abortion. It's just talked about in terms of rights."

Mark Huffman, vice president of education and training for Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee, said, "There is a link between socioeconomic status and abortion because there is a link between socioeconomic status and unintended pregnancy. What Planned Parenthood has been saying for years is that the best way to reduce the incidence of abortion would be to help low-income women."

According to the Tennessean, the Pregnant Women Support Act -- which would increase funding for food nutrition programs and health insurance, along with programs aimed at reducing abortions -- is stalled in Congress. Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-Tenn.), the sponsor of the measure who opposes abortion rights, said that being opposed to abortion on legal grounds is insufficient. "People get angry and they scream and shout ... and nothing gets done for the people we all say we care about," Davis said, adding, "If we can pass this bill and get it implemented across the country, I believe we can dramatically reduce the number of abortions."

The Tennessean reports that some antiabortion groups are skeptical about the findings of the Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good study. Brian Harris of Tennessee Right to Life said that he supports increased aid for low-income women along with legal restrictions on abortion. However, he said he thinks the "public urging by the alliance for greater public funding for government aid programs comes as an election-season attempt to divert attention from the Democratic nominee's extreme pro-abortion position. It's their only hope of convincing pro-life Catholic swing voters to consider supporting" Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). Wright denies having a political agenda, the Tennessean reports (Smietana, Tennessean, 9/16).

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