For years, we’ve heard Republicans, conservatives, and religious rightists say they want to reduce, or even stop, abortions from happening yet they’ve opposed comprehensive sex education and access to contraception at every turn.
There is some good news for the people in these groups: the abortion rate is at an all-time low, however, it’s not because of the restrictive attitudes but because of increased access to birth control.
Women in the United States are having abortions at the lowest rate since the 1973 decision known as Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion. Despite the shouting on the right about the importance of defunding Planned Parenthood, putting multiple restrictions on a woman’s right to choose, and some even declaring that a complete ban should be put in place, remember that the abortion rate has actually been declining for decades.
The raw recorded number of abortions fell below one million for the first time since the mid-1970s, which is particularly notable since the population today is far bigger and shows just how drastically the abortion rate has decreased.
This decrease is because of the access to higher quality birth control, thus causing fewer pregnancies, which will result in fewer abortions. Another interesting part of this is living in cultures that treat contraception as less taboo also leads to fewer abortions. If you look at developing African, Asian, and Latin American countries, where abortion access is low, along with birth control as a taboo, abortion rates have held steady.
The decrease that we see in our own country has happened in other countries where abortions are less taboo and where both the services of abortion and birth control are more accessible.
These declining rates should make the anti-choicers rejoice, but they probably won’t be supporting these liberal ideas anytime soon, especially with our self-proclaimed “pro-life” President and Vice President that are guilty of believing and spreading absolute lies about abortion.
