DATA SHOW CLAIMS OF INCREASED ABORTIONS UNDER BUSH DON’T HOLD UP

National Right to Life ^ | Randall K. O'Bannon

[Keyes2000mt]

A piece by a California seminary professor is appearing on the internet and an in several newspapers claiming that abortions have increased under the Bush administration. While trotting out what appear to be detailed statistics from several states, the professor has one basic problem: his numbers don’t hold up.

Glenn Stassen, the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, says that while national statistics from 1990 to 2000 show abortion declining, figures from 11 out of 16 states show abortion increasing since Bush took office. This is both mistaken and misleading.

Stassen looks at national figures showing the annual number of abortions dropping from about 1.6 million in 1990 to just over 1.3 million in 2000 to argue that there was a steady decline of 1.7% a year before Bush took office. There was a 17.4% decline over the decade, but Stassen’s claim is misleading. The decline was strongest in the first half of the decade, which began with George H.W. Bush in office, but slowed during Bill Clinton’s term, and even reversed itself one year. In Clinton’s last year in office, the decline was not 1.7%, but just 0.1%.

There have been no national figures published beyond 2000. Setting aside for the moment the question of whether the sixteen states Stassen uses to support his claim of a reversed national trend are representative of the country as a whole, Stassen’s case falls apart when one attempts to confirm the data he has reported.

Stassen lists South Dakota and Wisconsin as two places where abortions increased from 2001 to 2002. Figures from those state health departments show abortions decreased in both states during that time frame.

Stassen lists Illinois as another state where abortions increased from 2001 to 2002. State records do confirm a slight increase for 2002, but then a drop of 10% for 2003, indicating that 2002 was probably just an aberration in a long term downward trend.

With those three states shifting from the increase to the decrease column, Stassen’s claim that abortions have increased in 11 out of 16 states now turns into a 8 to 8 tie, with as many states decreasing as increasing. Hardly anything definitive.

Stassen reports large increases in four of the 16 states above – Colorado, Arizona, Idaho, and Michigan. While state data do record a significantly higher number of abortions in these states for 2002 than in 2001, officials from at least two of the states with the highest reported increases caution against seeing this as evidence of any real increase.

In Arizona, where Stassen reported a 26.4% increase, the state Department of Health Services cautioned in its report that “It is unclear whether this increase in the number of reported abortions represents a true increase in the actual number of abortions performed, or, perhaps, a better response rate of providers of non-surgical (so called medical) terminations of pregnancy.”

State officials in Colorado, where Stassen reported an astronomical 67.4% one year increase, recently revamped their reporting regimen to address underreporting, and sent a note to abortion “providers” reminding them that reporting was required in Colorado. The state said they expected an increase in reports, and declared, “No one could or should conclude that this anticipated increase in the rate of reported terminations reflects an increase in the true rate.”

Stassen doesn’t report these caveats. But if state officials are reluctant to say their data indicates real increases, they don’t belong on Stassen’s list of states with more abortions. That would leave just 6 increasing versus 8 decreasing states, the opposite of what Stassen claims. Stassen’s case falls apart. Stassen’s thesis that abortion increases can be linked to job losses and other economic factors doesn’t even hold up to his own data.

While some states where Stassen said abortions increased also saw increases in their unemployment rates over those same years, there are also plenty of counter-examples. Illinois’s abortions dropped substantially between 2002 and 2003, in spite of its unemployment rate being stuck at 6.7%, among the worst in the nation. Ohio’s unemployment rate rose considerably relative to most other states, but abortions there declined. If the economic determinism Stassen assumes was valid, those state results would be reversed.

Stassen presents himself as someone sympathetic to the pro-life cause who was shocked and saddened to find out that our pro-life president’s policies were not having the pro-life effects he anticipated. That persona is misleading.

Though he identifies himself as “consistently pro-life,” Stassen fails to mention that he was one of the original signatories of “A Call to Concern,” a 1977 document that expressed support for the Roe v. Wade decision and affirmed that “abortion in some instances may be the most loving act possible.”

[Outraged]

Glenn Stassen, the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, says that while national statistics from 1990 to 2000 show abortion declining, figures from 11 out of 16 states show abortion increasing since Bush took office. This is both mistaken and misleading.

Yep, Satan's liberalism has a firm foothold at Fuller. I found the place suspect but this account removes all doubt.

[Bonaparte]

More information about professor "social justice" stassen.

[Southack]

Stassen made multiple donations to the most pro-abortion Senator in American history, Wellstone...

Total for this search: $4,268

Contributor	Occupation	Date	Amount	Recipient
STASSEN, DOROTHY PASADENA,CA 91104		9/27/2002	$1,000	Wellstone, Paul
STASSEN, GLEN PASADENA,CA 91182	SO BAPTIST THEOL SEMINARY	7/12/1999	$750	National Cmte for an Effective Congress
STASSEN, GLEN PASADENA,CA 91182	SO BAPTIST THEOL SEMINARY	10/4/1999	$300	National Cmte for an Effective Congress
STASSEN, GLEN PASADENA,CA 91182	PROFESSOR	10/26/2000	$218	DNC Services Corp
STASSEN, GLEN H PASADENA,CA 91104	FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY	9/27/2002	$1,000	Wellstone, Paul
STASSEN, GLEN H PASADENA,CA 91182	FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY	5/26/2001	$1,000	Wellstone, Paul

[noodler]

The analysis is something you already did.One can only read and think and see something rotten exists in the culture for the "situation" (killing of little babies in every form)to be prevalent and debated. This is the ultimate example of a too fat society impacted with their own concerns trying to flush their sins.They've got most the media and entertainment behind them.

[Bonaparte]

Read this essay by Stassen. He's on the far fringes of the left.

[Bonaparte]

And here is the leftist company the "professor" keeps.

[Bonaparte]

Hahaha! The "pro-life" professor stassen gives thousands to the support of the most pro-abortion extremist Minnasota ever sent to Congress.

[Truth666]

There have been no national figures published beyond 2000.
Nobody seems interested about it.

[noodler]

Yes welstone.The funeral pyre of the last best dem or whatever he ended up after they danced over the body like the ill-tempered obnoxious asses.Sure he would be proud.

[ladyinred]

So this is where Bubba got his more abortions under Bush garbage.

[Bonaparte]

"National Cmte for an Effective Congress"

An organization founded by eleanor roosevelt to promote leftists for office, which it still does.

[Californiajones]

Digging this guy out of apostate Fuller Theological is the Left (and Clintons) knee jerk reaction to the victory of the believer in the election.

Hillary was converted to the Left by a very very Lib pastor in the sixties. Bet he knew this Staussen guy.

[tkathy]

The truth of the matter is no law will ever stop one single abortion. Anyone who wants one will get one. The only way is to persuade people, rather than trying to force people.

[Outraged]

Around two years ago I saw this guy (Richard Mouw - President and Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller) at my church attacking the war effort (Bush by association) by pushing doubt upon our parishioners. He used the "just war theory" and perverted its relevance (in my mind) to our self-defense. Before firing off a scathing letter to my Pastor, I did some more in-depth research on this guy and found a couple articles defending Bill Clinton!

Stassen nails the coffin. Satan is at work.

[HiTech RedNeck]

It has and did. When Roe killed all the state laws, abortion skyrocketed. You do the math.

[Bonaparte]

In fact, it appears that "pro-life" Stassen liked Wellstone so much, he had his wife contribute to him also.

Stassen describes himself as an expert in Christian ethics, which he teaches at Fuller. I wonder what he tells his students about liars?

[Walkingfeather]

I emailed this link to the president of fuller, and said I doubt it would do much good since from his writings he appeared to be as much of a liberal screw head as this professor.

[Southack]

Fuller Theological is nothing more than a Marxist indoctrination camp, with a hint of illicit gay sex thrown in for behind-the-scenes enticements.

[Bonaparte]

When a society makes abortion legal, it condones that practice. It de-stigmatizes it and makes it easier to justify. That is why we've had over 40 million of these murders over the past 30 years.