An urban legend that says abortion rates have gone up under President Bush's term in office keeps poking up its head. In today's Reno Gazette Journal, letter writer Lynda Allan of Reno says, "Abortion rates are directly tied to the economic state of the country. That's why abortions have gone up during Bush's presidency, and went down during Clinton's."
Fortunately Allan is wrong. Abortion is still going down. Factcheck.org and abortion leader Planned Parenthood's Alan Guttmacher Institute say that abortion has continued to decline under the Bush administration. Factcheck.org also tells where this legend originated.
Allan is sort of on the right track when she says that "If people in this country want to stop abortion, then make your elected representatives raise the minimum wage instead of giving themselves raises. Reinvest in school lunch and breakfast programs. Teach more sex education, not less, and make inexpensive birth control methods available to everyone."
I don't know if any of that is going to help, especially birth control and sex ed. Abortion clinics say that more than 50 percent of women aborting are on BC and over 80 percent know how to use it. NARAL says 98 percent of women use it. So BC is not stopping abortion. Kids taking comprehensive sex ed become more sexually active.
But she's right that we should do what we can to make sure that women do not have to choose between their careers/education and their kids.
Feminists for Life says that colleges need to start being more pregnancy friendly. They say that one in five abortions is done on college women. College girls only have one choice, abort or drop out. We need to make it easier. Start by having changing rooms, day care, telecommuting, pregnancy insurance, special housing and etc.
Fiscal conservatives might object, but when we consider the long term health and emotional as well as economic impact of abortion, fiscal conservatives may see this as a good expenditure. It is in our nation's best interest for the college women to have their kids (not abort) and we do not want them to drop out of school.
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