Posted on 05/31/2005 12:54:14 PM PDT by Lorianne
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) has published a new report which demonstrates that, contrary to several claims made in the last year, abortion rates in the US have continued their decline under the Bush administration. The AGI was founded in honour of a former Planned Parenthood president and therefore has no personal interest in proving Bush’s pro-life policies to be successful.
Pro-abortion or anti-Bush politicians and activists have made a practice over the last several years of criticizing Bush’s pro-life stance by ‘demonstrating’ that his pro-life policies have backfired. They claim that rather than continuing the downward trend of the last two decades, Bush’s policies have caused the abortion rates to increase.
In the most audacious incident yet of this tactic Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, in an appearance a few days ago on NBC’s Meet the Press, said “You know that abortions have gone up 25 percent since George Bush was President?” John Kerry and Hilary Clinton, amongst others, have stated figures to the same effect.
Were it true, anything even approaching a 25% increase would be a catastrophic blow to Bush’s policies, especially taking into account the steady downward trend in abortion rates since 1980. However, the AGI’s analysis of the abortion data available for the 43 most reliable states proves that this statistic is thoroughly, even maliciously, false.
FactCheck.org, a University of Pennsylvania based, non-profit organization whose self-professed goal is to “reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics” has asked how this false statistic came to be circulated. They have traced its source to several opinion pieces by Glen Harold Stassen, printed in the Houston Chronicle and Sojourners, a Christian publication. In these articles Stassen claimed to have satisfactory statistical evidence to show that abortion rates were demonstrating a trend of increasing since Bush’s election into office, and he called this trend ‘disturbing’.
However, Stassen’s research was flawed. His analysis had encompassed suspect data from a mere 16 states, several of which have unreliable abortion reporting methods. In fact, a portion of the data which Stassen cites out of national context in his original opinion piece was gathered from the AGI, the same institute which is currently contradicting his ‘findings’. In a recent memo about the issue Stassen himself has admitted, regarding the AGI report, that “their results are significantly better than what I could have obtained seven months ago. I affirm their methods and their study, and am grateful for their effort.”
What the AGI report shows is that, rather than increasing by so unthinkable a number as the 25% stated by Howard Dean, under Bush the abortion rates have continued their two-decade long decrease. Between 2001 and 2002 the AGI estimates a decrease of .9% in the abortion rate.
http://www.factcheck.org/article330.html
Relatively Pleasant Abortion news
http://machonachos.redstate.org/story/2005/5/28/14858/6918
Were revenues down for Planned Parenthood as well?
That Bush, how dare he save lives??
Maybe Planned Parenthood is gung ho on this Embryonic Stem Cell "research" bill because it can pad their numbers and claim victory for their CEO and number one stockholder, Satan.
I was so mad when Dean made that statement on Tim Russert's show and he didn't even question it. The Dems don't care what the truth is, as usual.
First, does anybody remember when both John Kerry and Howard Dean were spouting the ridiculous charge that abortions had gone up during Bush's tenure?
From Kerry: "And do you know that in fact abortion has gone up in these last few years with the draconian policies that Republicans have where they talk about it, but they do nothing to find this kind of place of discussion."
And from Chairman Dean: "We'd like to make abortion rare. You know that abortions have gone up 25 percent since George Bush was president?"
They must be devastated about it.
It's a new revenue stream.
Look for a New York Times article, coming soon, spinning this their way: "Right to Choose Endangered"!
NBC’s Meet the Press on January 30, 2005 , Sen. John Kerry claimed that abortions were up refering to the BS data
Thanks for posting - this lie will be with us for a long time, I fear, but it's nice to have the rebuttal handy.
John "3 Purple Hearts, CINO, SUV Ownin', I voted for it before I voted against it" Kerry
- NBC News MEET THE PRESS Sunday, January 30, 2005
Simply Despicable!!!
Hillary said it loud and clear...They are up and were lower when her "rug" was president. She even proposed to pay them to have the babies...Ain't that special!!....A Dem baby factory. Money is the solution to all things for the Dems.
"They must be devastated about it"
Yes, devastated, dismayed, and probably desperatly looking for a way to spin it.
One of my kids has a thing for "not exactly telling the truth" ... I smell a Pulitzer for investigative journalism in his future.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.