Editorial, Opinion Piece Respond To Guttmacher Report Finding A Decline In U.S. Abortion Rate

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 29 Jan 2008 - 10:00 PST

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The New York Times and Chicago Tribune recently published an editorial and opinion piece, respectively, in response to a Guttmacher Institute report released earlier this month that found the U.S. abortion rate has reached its lowest level since 1974. The total number of abortions among women ages 15 to 44 decreased by 8% from 1.3 million in 2000 to 1.2 million in 2005, according to the report. It also found that the proportion of pregnancies ending in abortion declined from 24.5% in 2000 to 22.4% in 2005 -- a decrease from a high of 30.4% in 1983 -- and that about 90% of abortions occur in the first trimester (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 1/17). Summaries appear below.

Editorial

• New York Times: Although the U.S. "continues to make progress on reducing the abortion rate," the "progress would be greater if more was done to avoid unintended pregnancies," a Times editorial says. The National Right to Life Committee "seized upon the numbers as vindication for their strategy of demonizing abortion" and restricting access to the procedure, but a "harder look at the data suggests another explanation," the Times says. According to the editorial, nearly two-thirds of the decline in the number of abortions "can be traced to eight jurisdictions with few or no abortion restrictions" -- California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington state and Washington, D.C. Guttmacher President Sharon Camp noted that the locations have committed to comprehensive sex education, the editorial says, adding that the locales also have made contraception "widely available." The editorial concludes that a "national emphasis on better sex education and access to contraception" is needed to continue the trend (New York Times, 1/26).

Opinion Piece

• Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune: Although abortion-rights opponents and supporters "don't agree on much," both groups "celebrate[d]" the decline in abortion rates "even as they argued over who should claim the most credit for the decline," Page, a Tribune columnist, writes in an opinion piece. Page also mentions the "controversial hypothesis" that legalized abortion has contributed to the decrease in crime. According to Page, the "best lesson" to consider in a "sensitive and highly individualized issue like abortion" is to "remember what worked in the past" and to "keep doing it" (Page, Chicago Tribune, 1/27).

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