Number of Wis. abortions drops for the 5th year [to lowest total ever recorded]

Minneapolis Star Tribune ^ | June 30, 2009 | TODD RICHMOND

[rhema]

MADISON, Wis. - The number of abortions performed in Wisconsin dropped slightly last year to its lowest level since the state began keeping records three decades ago, according to a state report released Tuesday.

The state Department of Health Services study found that 8,229 abortions were performed in Wisconsin last year, down from 8,267 in 2007.

The number of Wisconsin abortions has now fallen for five straight years, since 10,557 abortions were reported in 2003. The 2008 number also was the lowest since Wisconsin started tracking abortions in 1974.

Although the drop was small, it was hailed by anti-abortion advocates. . . .

On the Net: Abortion report

[rhema]

Abortions in Minnesota were also down, continuing a three-decade trend.

". . .On the other side of the state's abortion debate, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) also called the statistics good news.

"It is more evidence that women and society in general are turning away from abortion and embracing the life-affirming resources available for both mother and child," executive director Scott Fischbach said in a prepared statement.

He said a 2005 state grant program to assist pregnant women called Positive Alternative contributed to the decline.

[madinmadtown]

It is good news. However, I believe that the population of young women has also decreased during that time period.

[relictele]

Whatever the raw numbers, the fact remains that the babies die and the women survive.

All the fearmongering and self-congratulatory blather about ‘choice’ cannot compete with the women who regret their abortions and tell the world about it. The comfortable-shoe NARAL types will never be pregnant and can’t compete with reality.

[InterestedQuestioner]

While this sounds like good news, I suggest it be interpreted cautiously. I suspect that what we are seeing is actually a transition to pharmaceutical abortions, such as the morning after pill or “Plan B” rather than surgical abortions. Such abortions would not be recorded, and would make the total number of abortions to appear to have dropped, even if they have not.