Contraception vs Abortion

Sidestepping the contentious public abortion debates…a whole host…on the evangelical Left assert the myth that the way to end abortion is by passing out taxpayer-funded contraception like it’s candy.

Nice try, but the research and data are against them yet again.  Planned Parenthood’s own think tank, the Guttmacher Institute, surveyed more than ten thousand women who had abortions during 2000 and 2001.  The study found that a mere 12 percent of the women cited limited access to birth control as the reason for their pregnancies and subsequent abortions.

Another study was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to better gauge the reasons for teenage pregnancies.  To do this, the CDC surveyed teen girls aged fourteen to nineteen with unintended pregnancies.  Only 13 percent reported having trouble obtaining birth control.

It’s not just an American problem either.  Researchers in Spain analyzed the use of contraception and abortion rates between 1997 and 2007.  What they found was astonishing.  During that decade access and use of contraception increased to 80 percent, yet abortion also increased—by a whopping 108 percent.  Essentially greater access to contraception led to a false sense of security.  When contraception failed, as often happens, the baby was aborted.

Chelsen Vicari, “Distortion: How the New Christian Left is Twisting the Gospel & Damaging the Faith, p.115-116 (2014)