Anti-Abortionists: Rubbers --Not Laws-- Prevent Pregnancies

Via the Ear-To-The-Ground column at Truthdig, nobody would EVER have guessed that making condoms more accessible would reduce the number of abortions.

Really!

This isn’t going to sound all that shocking, but remember that this country is still wrapping its head around evolution: Criminalizing abortion does not reduce the number of abortions; it reduces the number of safe abortions. Contraception, however, does reduce abortions, according to an epic study of 197 countries.

The research was carried out by a pro-choice think tank, but you don’t have to be biased or even particularly clever to figure out that birth control prevents unwanted pregnancies and, therefore, abortions.

Guess what country, according to the BBC’s report on the study, has an abortion rate “among the highest in the developed world”? Hint: abstinence-only education. —PZS (From the BBC):

...Western Europe is held up as an example of what access to contraceptive services can achieve, and the Netherlands - with just 10 abortions per 1,000 women compared to the world's 29 per 1,000 - is held up as the gold standard.

Here, young people report using two forms of contraception as standard.

Even the UK, which has a relatively high rate, fares well in comparison to the US, where the number of abortions is among the highest in the developed world. The institute says this rate is in part explained by inconsistencies in insurance coverage of contraceptive supplies.

In much of eastern Europe, where abortion was treated as a form of birth control, abortion rates have dropped by 50% in the past decade as contraceptives have become more widely available.

And globally, the number of married women of childbearing age with access to contraception has increased from 54% in 1990 to 63% in 2003, with gains also seen among single, sexually active women.

But there were still significant unmet contraception needs, and a lack of interest among pharmaceutical companies in developing new forms of birth control that provide top protection on demand, the institute said.

Abortion: On Demand, no questions asked. The USer 'insurance reform' package is meaningless without provision to supply condoms and/or abortion-referral services...