Abortion

The state of Texas is currently trying to pass a bill that would limit access to abortions, which, according to the Supreme Court, is at least against the spirit of the Constitution. Anyway, a Democratic State Senator, Wendy Davis, successfully filibustered the bill in a special legislative session. However, the governor just declared a new special session, so its passage is very likely.  

Due to these current events, now seemed like a good time to share a couple graphs I've come across in The Economist. First, a graph of teenage pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates. 

All rates have been decreasing, despite the legality of abortions. Surely the large decrease in teenage pregnancy has contributed, so it would seem that if Texas wants to reduce abortions it should reduce its higher than average teen pregnancy rate. But Texas has abstinence-only education.

The second graph shows the rates of safe and unsafe abortions in the world:

According to the data, Latin America and Africa have the highest rates of abortions, despite having some of the strictest laws limiting the procedure, or making it illegal. At the same time, they have the highest rates of unsafe abortions. The least that can be said is that laws limiting or making abortion illegal are negatively correlated with the rate of abortions. The United States and Canada, where abortion laws are generally more liberal, have lower rates of abortions and nearly no unsafe abortions. And those rates are decreasing.

No one wants there to be more abortions. But it seems that "legal, safe, and rare" is a more successful policy than the alternative, which, according to these graphs, could be described as "illegal, unsafe, and more common".




Furthermore, isn't it silly that conservatives are quick to complain about government regulations on businesses and other areas of their lives, yet quickly grab for the tools of irrelevant, unnecessary, and burdensome government regulations to limit a procedure that is protected under the constitution by a person's right to privacy from excessive government intrusion in their life? It's as if Keynes and Hayek were right when they said that conservatives have no consistent intellectual standard in terms of the role of government in society. In fact, Republicans in the Texas senate flouted the very rules of the senate to try to break the filibuster.