Fetal Fatalities

A counterintuitive observation from Scott Richert:

Abortion is on the rise in the United States—and has been since George W. Bush was first inaugurated President in January 2001. Current estimates of the number of abortions performed annually in America hover just above 1.3 million. What may astonish many of the "moral values" voters who reelected President Bush last November is that, from 1992 to 2000 (coinciding with President Clinton's eight years in office), abortions actually declined, from 1.528 million to just over 1.1 million—the lowest rate since 1974.

Richert's argument is that the rise in abortion rates is linked to a rise in male unemployment. The article isn't online, unfortunately, but it appears in the January issue of Chronicles.

(And yes, I know: Clinton's eight years in office actually stretched from 1993 to 2001. Caveat duly noted.)