Michael New is just the best at showing that state policy can have an impact on their abortion rates, even in the extremely hostile climate created by the Supreme Court and Roe. IN this article, he is refuting claims made in a book and a deeply pernicious book review that the culture of Red States encourages abortion. Michael New refutes each of these claims, and makes some arguments of his own. Parental notification laws, restrictions on state funding for abortions, and some abstinence education programs do reduce the abortion rates at the state level.
Contrary to popular opinion, increased funding for contraception is unlikely to do much.
existing research indicates that there is relatively little the government can do to increase contraceptive use among sexually active women. Nine years ago, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which was Planned Parenthood’s research arm and which strongly supports more funding for contraception, surveyed 10,000 women who had abortions. Among those who were not using contraception at the time they conceived, a very small percent cited cost or lack of availability as their reason for not using contraception. Specifically, only 12 percent said that they lacked access to contraceptives due to financial or other reasons. Given all the existing programs, it is by no means clear that more federal spending on contraceptives could increase contraceptive use among this subset of women.
His conclusion is that the efforts of social conservatives to reduce the number of abortions are paying off. We should not be seduced by the claim that we could reduce abortions, if only we had enough condoms. (RRR’s know my name for this particular ideology: condomism.)