Abortion saves lives

"El aborto terapeutico, salva vidas" sums up in Spanish the latest research from the Guttmacher Institute: Abortion-on-demand saves women's lives.

In research published last week, the Guttmacher Institute looked at world-wide abortion trends and the number of unsafe abortions from 1995 to 2003. Researchers found similar abortion rates in Africa, Asia, and Europe, and lower rates in North America. Their conclusion: Pro-abortion laws don't mean more abortions, and pro-life laws don't mean fewer abortions - just more unsafe abortions. Beth Fredrick of the International Women's Health Coalition said, "The legal status of abortion has never dissuaded women and couples, who, for whatever reason, seek to end pregnancy."

Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute (PRI), told WoW he is skeptical of the Guttmacher Institute's research methods and conclusions. Mosher said in countries with socialized medicine, it is easy to track abortion rates because government hospitals keep the records. In countries like the U.S. the estimate is less precise, and in third world countries where abortion is illegal, "They have no statistics at all. … Those number are just wild, wild guesses," Mosher said.

In Columbia, for instance, GI has estimated the number of abortions in the hundreds of thousands. When PRI asked Columbia's Vice Minister for Health, the minister gave a different estimate: 50 abortions since abortion became legal last May.

Mosher said pro-abortion organizations have a political and financial interest in inflating abortion statistics: "The higher the number then obviously the more of a health care crisis we have … and the more we need to legalize abortion."

Mosher does agree with GI that China's abortion rate has fallen, causing a drop in abortion statistics worldwide. But Mosher attributes China's drop to sterilization campaigns, not legalized abortion - a fact he said the GI has no political interest in reporting.