Richard Doerflinger of the USCCB Pro-Life activities committee (and a way-back-when colleague of mine) points out that Guttmacher is always more accurate than the Centers for Disease Control Abortion Surveillance System, since AGI depends on detailed interviews and questionnaires of the abortion industry and the contraception-abaortion population, whereas CDC relies on legal reporting. There is no uniform abortion reporting requirement across all states in the U.S., and California hasn't reported to the CDC for years. That's why CDC's figures are always significantly less accurate than AGI's --- because CA, the #1 abortion state in the USA, does not report to CDC.
It is factually baseless to say that abortion-associated group' studies "can be discounted without bothering to read past the abstract." I don't know of a single pro-life, profamily or conservative group that takes that approach. In fact, exactly the opposite: they would mine the study for data, and forget the "abstract", which is likely to be a summary of their own tendentious "conclusions" cooked for abortion-friendly editorial writers and policy makers.
Abortion rates are comparatively low among married women, because, by far, married women's #1 form of "contraception" is in fact surgical sterilization, i.e. tubal ligation. Their #2 form is long-term endocrine disruption, i.e. hormone-based patches, inserts, and injections which impair normal physiological function (Ovarian follicle and corpus luteum).
Naturally anybody who's achieved long-term surgical or chemical sterilization is going to have fewer "omigod" surprise pregnancies, than some first-year college student who's still fumbling around with foams, sprays and rubbers. You can't can get past the slip, rip and drip factor, plus "I was away for the weekend and I left my Trojans in my other purse."
I hope this information is useful to you.
I know it’s been a while, and I’m not going to take the time now to fully address your post. I’m sure the same issues will arise in future discussions.
However, I will say that what you said there clarifies a lot. I have often wondered why pro-lifers promote the message that contraceptives are ineffective just as avidly as pro-aborts do, because it makes no sense. It is clear why pro-aborts promote that belief—abortion is exceedingly profitable—but not why pro-lifers would promote that exact same belief, because preventing pregnancy eliminates abortion. But now that you have informed me that the major pro-life organizations get their info from Guttmacher—well, that explains a lot. That is a serious problem for the pro-life movement. I will research this connection some more and think about it... as pro-lifers, we cannot afford to keep spreading the pro-abort profit-motivated message.