Why Abortion Should Be Banned in the United States

Photo by Chiara Marra

It's not that abortion will be banned in the United States; it's that it *should* be banned. All you have to do is to look at the data, dude.

From the CDC "Estimated Pregnancy Rates by Outcome for the United States, 1990-2004" report:

"This latest pregnancy outcome report finds that there was little change in births and fetal loss numbers between 1990 and 2004. However, abortions fell 24 percent over this time period," said Stephanie Ventura, head of the Reproductive Statistics Branch at CDC/NCHS.

In 1990, there were ~6.79 million total pregnancies: 4.16 million live births, 1.61 million induced abortions, and 1.02 million fetal losses.

In 2004, there were 6.39 million total pregnancies: 4.11 million live births, 1.22 million induced abortions, and 1.06 million fetal losses.

QED:

I) A 24% fall in abortions indicates that the status quo -- having access to safe and legal abortions -- just isn't working. If the goal is to reduce the number of abortions, clearly the State must intervene and ban the safe and effective medical procedure of abortion.

II) The 2004 patterns by pregnancy outcome of just over 6 in 10 pregnancies ending in live birth, 1 in 5 in an induced abortion, and about 1 in 6 in a fetal loss indicates that any and all abortions must be banned, not just elective ones. Otherwise a good number of the 1.06 million women with fetal losses in need of a therapeutic abortion could just get away with having an abortion.

III) The 1.22 million induced abortions/1.06 million fetal losses indicates that there are about 2.28 million women the State could deprive of receiving proper medical care. And that's always a desirable outcome, no matter what.