Want to lower the abortion rate? Support pro-choice policies
The chief lesson of a new report is that making abortion illegal or hard to get doesn’t end abortion, it just makes it less safe
Jill Filipovic
Sat 24 Mar 2018
Want to lower the abortion rate and prevent maternal deaths worldwide? Support pro-choice policies. That’s the takeaway from a new report from the Guttmacher Institute, which looks at abortion around the world.
The chief lesson of the report is one pro-choice advocates have known for years: that making abortion illegal or hard to get doesn’t end abortion, it just makes it less safe. And opposition to abortion tends to come along with opposition to contraception and women’s rights more broadly – and the limited contraception access that results means a higher abortion rate.