It comes from a pro-abortion source–#WeCount, a national research project lead by the Society of Family Planning—but they have provided invaluable information gauging the effect of the reversal of Roe v. Wade on the number of abortions in various states.
We reported on the preliminary results in late October in a report leaked exclusively to FiveThirtyEight.
The data set “shows that in the two months after the Supreme Court decision, there were 10,570 fewer abortions as compared to pre-Dobbs estimates.” That was a nationwide drop of an estimated 6%.
Last Tuesday, Teresa Woodard of WFAA-TV reported on the impact in Texas. The astonishing headline read, “Report says 2,770 abortions were provided in Texas in April. By August, that number fell to 10.”
10!
Pro-lifers, of course were delighted.
“This means there are children alive today who otherwise would not have been if not for this Supreme Court decision and this epic victory,” Kimberlyn Schwartz of Texas Right to Life told Woodard.
“I expect more data will show we’re saving even more lives than what is being shown in this study,” she said.
Texas, along with more than dozen states, began enforcing state laws which were overridden by Roe, but not taken off the books. Some laws go back many decades, some were passed in the past few years. Some laws are in effect, others are tied up in court.
Margot Sanger-Katz and Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times wrote
“Thirteen states banned or severely restricted abortion during those months, mostly in the South, and legal abortions in those states fell to close to zero, according to detailed estimates made by a consortium of academics and abortion. Nine more states added major abortion restrictions, and legal abortions in those states fell by a third. In states with bans and restrictions, there were about 22,000 fewer abortions in July and August, compared with the baseline of April, before the decision.”
#WeCount is a new organization, spawned by the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning. “It is collecting abortion data from clinics, hospitals and telemedicine providers across the United States,” according to Sanger-Katz and Miller. “It obtained detailed abortion counts from 79 percent of the nation’s abortion providers, which were responsible for 82 percent of all abortions before the court’s Dobbs decision. Researchers used adjustments based on state data and time trends to estimate the missing data.”
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
