Local Activists React to Abortion Study

Minnesota abortion-rights groups hailed a new study released by the Guttmacher Institute and World Health Organization, which showed that countries that have outlawed abortion have similar abortion rates as those with legal access to abortion.

The study, which was published Friday in the medical journal Lancet, showed abortion rates down across the board.  But those rates fell further in developed countries, where abortion is generally legal, than it did in developing nations, where it is generally illegal.  In developed nations, 26 out of every 1,000 women of childbearing age had an abortion in 2003, while developing nations had a rate of 29 per 1,000.  Abortion rates were lowest in Western Europe, where abortion is generally legal and contraceptives are widely available.  Rates were higher in North America and Northern Europe and were highest in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“This report validates what we have always known: restricting women’s access to safe abortion and making criminals out of doctors does absolutely nothing to reduce the need for abortion and only puts the health and lives of women at risk,” said Melissa Reed, political director for NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota, in a statement given to Minnesota Monitor.  “Hopefully, now anti-choice extremists will join us and support proven prevention strategies such as increased access to affordable family planning care, sexual health education and access to emergency contraception.”

MoreConnie Lewis, the vice president of external affairs for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota agreed.  In an interview with Minnesota Monitor, she said, “Access to birth control and real sex education are the best ways to prevent unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion.  This study just confirms that.”

An anti-abortion activist quoted in the New York Times questioned the study’s validity.  Randall O’Bannon of the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund in Washington said, “These numbers are not definitive and very susceptible to interpretation according to the agenda of the people who are organizing the data.”

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life was not available to respond to a request for comment on the study.

(Sidebar: Guttmacher/WHO Abortion Study: By the Numbers)