Abortions Rising Under Bush? Not True. How That False Claim Came To Be - And Lives On.

FactCheck.Org ^ | May 25, 2005 | Staff

[Laissez-faire capitalist]

Summary

Politicians from Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Howard Dean have recently contended that abortions have increased since George W. Bush took office in 2001.

This claim is false. It's based on an opinion piece that used data from only 16 states. A study by the Alan Guttmacher Instute of 43 states found that abortions have actually decreased. Update, May 26: The author of the original claim now concedes that the Guttmacher study is "significantly better" than his own.

Analysis

A number of politicians and organizations have been circulating an interesting and surprising idea: that abortions have gone up under George W. Bush's watch. The claim is repeated by supporters of abortion rights as evidence that Bush's anti-abortion poolicies have backfired, or at least been ineffective.

But the claim is untrue. In fact, according to the respected Alan Guttmacher Institue, a 20-year decline in abortion rates continued after Bush took office, as shown in this graph...

[Atheist_Canadian_Conservative]

That is also possible.

[patriciaruth]

The state of the economy and war may be factors in whether a woman decides to give birth to a child.

We were entering a recession when George W took over and a huge war with an attack on U.S. soil started soon afterwards. Despite both of these factors, a higher percentage of women opted for life.

Without the depression and the war, the number of women chosing life might have been higher.