US Abortion Decline Ceases...What A Surprise

The decades-long decline in the U.S. abortion rate slowed yet again in 2003, adding to mounting evidence that the nation is failing to help women prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion, according to a new analysis by the Guttmacher Institute.

Gee, really?

So failing to educate our youth about contraception, slashing funding for birth control for low-income women, funneling money into fake crisis pregnancy centers, supporting legislation that allows pharmacists and hospitals to deny women, including rape victims, access to emergency contraception, hijacking emergency contraception's approval of over-the-counter status and mandating parental notification laws isn't working? These aren't reducing the need for abortion? Who knew.

Guttmacher Institute researchers reported in May that while the overall rate of unintended pregnancy in the U.S. remained unchanged between 1994 and 2001, rates increased by 29% among poor women, even as the rate declined by 20% for more affluent women.

“These trends are alarming, and should be a wake-up call to policymakers at the federal and state levels to do more to help women, especially those at greatest risk, avoid unwanted pregnancies,” argues Dr. Camp. “There is an urgent need to strengthen evidence-based policies that have been proven to reduce unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion. These include improving public funding for contraceptive services for poor women at the state and federal levels by expanding Medicaid eligibility and Title X funding, and ensuring that the Food and Drug Administration acts on its own experts’ advice to grant over-the-counter status for the emergency contraceptive Plan B without further delay.”

Word for word what feminists have been saying since 2000.