Want to curb abortion? Keep it safe and legal
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 20, 2007
If abortion became illegal tomorrow, it wouldn't become less prevalent, just less safe. That is the conclusion of a comprehensive global study comparing abortion rates in countries where the procedure is legal to those in places where it is outlawed.
The study, a collaboration between the World Health Organization and the Guttmacher Institute in New York, found that when women around the world experience an unwanted pregnancy, they will seek out abortion services at about the same rates, regardless of the law. The only difference is that those who obtain illegal abortions are far more likely to die from complications.
The statistics indicate that the places in the world where abortion is legal and where contraceptives are easily available are also the places with the fewest abortions relative to population. For example, in Uganda, where abortion is illegal and abstinence is the exclusive focus of sex education programs, the abortion rate is approximately 54 per 1,000 women. Compare that to Western Europe, where abortion is legal and contraception is widely available. There the abortion rate is the lowest in the world at 12 per 1,000 women.
If antiabortion activists really want to sharply reduce the rate of abortions worldwide, this study provides a road map: Keep abortion safe and legal and ramp up education on contraception and its wide distribution.
Every year, 67,000 women die from complications from abortions, primarily in countries that outlaw the procedure. When South Africa legalized abortion in 1996, the result was a 90 percent reduction in abortion-related mortality among pregnant women.
The Bush administration's abstinence-only sex eduction policies and hostility toward legal abortion and condom distribution programs overseas are precisely the wrong way to create a world where abortion is safe and rare.