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Can Democrats Reduce Abortion More than Republicans?
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| Contributor | Servo |
| Last Edited | Servo Oct 08, 2008 11:43am |
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| Category | Perspective |
| News Date | Tuesday, October 7, 2008 05:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Some Democrats are now making an unusual argument about abortion: that a Democratic administration might actually reduce abortions more than a Republican administration.
On the surface, this seems preposterous. Republicans oppose abortion rights, Democrats support them. How could it possibly be that a Democratic approach would reduce abortion more?
It's actually quite plausible under certain circumstances -- though not, I must add, under the approach Barack Obama is currently taking.
Let me start with a basic point. If you look at abortion rates since Roe v. Wade you find something startling: during Democratic administrations (pro choice administrations) the average annual abortion rate is virtually identical to that under Republican administrations. Many factors help explain that but it does force us to conclude that there's not a simple connection between whether you have a Republican president and lower abortion rates.
A new study indicates that a variety of non-coercive measures could have a real impact on abortion rates. Two social scientists recently looked at abortion rates in different states during the period in the 1990s when abortion rates were declining. They concluded that economics did affect women's decisions (what has long been suspected) and that therefore social welfare policies can have demonstrable effect. For instance, if you increase payments for Women, Infants and Children, more women come to think they'll have the means to birth and raise a child. They also found that when male employment improved, that reduced the abortion rate as well. Conversely, if you have Medicaid funding for abortions - something Obama supports -- that increases the rate of abortion.
The authors concluded that the right package of financial incentives could therefore reduce the number of abortions by several hundred thousand. |
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