I know this has been floating around the web for a while, but the Miami Herald had an interesting op-ed the other day from Glen Harold Stassen, a professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, and journalist Gary Krane on the issue of abortion. If you haven’t heard about this, their conclusions may surprise you.
Abortion was decreasing. When President Bush took office, the nation’s abortion rates were at a 24-year low, after a 17.4 percent decline during the 1990s. This was a steady decrease averaging 1.7 percent per year. (The data come from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life using the Guttmacher Institute’s studies.)
Enter Bush in 2001. One would expect the abortion rate to continue its consistent course downward, if not plunge. Instead, the opposite happened. We found four states that have posted three-year statistics: Kentucky’s increased by 3.2 percent from 2000 to 2003. Michigan’s increased by 11.3 percent from 2000 to 2003. Pennsylvania’s increased by 1.9 percent from 1999 to 2002. Colorado’s rates skyrocketed 111 percent. We found 12 additional states that reported statistics for 2001 and 2002. Eight states saw an increase in abortion rates (14.6 percent average increase), and five saw a decrease (4.3 percent average decrease).
Under Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.
Yep, Clinton wanted a nation where abortion is “safe, legal, and rare.” That’s exactly what he created. Bush opposes abortion rights altogether, but under his leadership, the procedure is used more than it was before he took office.
Stassen and Krane are not without ideas as to how this surprising trend occurred.
Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without healthcare, health insurance, jobs, child care and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means that we need a president who will do something about jobs and health insurance and support for prospective mothers.
Something for the anti-abortion crowd to mull over.