According to a report released Monday by the Guttmacher Institute, abortions among women ages 15-19 have reached a record low in the United States. The report states that fewer teens are getting abortions in America than at any point since the legalization of abortion in 1973.
The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights organization and former research arm of Planned Parenthood, has credited drops in abortion rates to lower rates of unintended pregnancies, driven by an increase in contraceptive use. The report also indicated that teen pregnancies in general are at their lowest in over 30 years, or were as of 2011.
However, what the report will not tell you is how pro-life laws across the nation have also contributed to the lowering of abortion rates among teens as well as women past their teen years. Pro-abortion advocates frequently argue that pro-life laws do not lower abortion rates – claiming they can actually increase abortion rates – sometimes playing on the myth that all pro-lifers seek to ban contraceptives. But as Live Action News writer Kristi Burton Brown explained…
In the end, it’s false that banning abortion does not decrease abortion rates…it’s clear from the examples of Poland and Ireland that abortion rates can indeed decline when abortion is made illegal.
And it’s not just Poland and Ireland. The United States as a whole has experienced a drop in abortion rates, following the recent increase in pro-life legislation. Pro-life laws passed in 2015 also resulted in the closure of several substandard abortion facilities, a trend which appears to be continuing into 2016.
There are undeniably several factors contributing to the record low in teen abortions, including pro-life legislation, and it’s something to celebrate.
