Repeat abortion study

The Alan Guttmacher Institute has released a new study regarding repeat abortions in the United States. They also have a press release about the report.

They conclude "the reproductive health care system in general is failing to provide women with the services and counseling they need" even though they later say "the majority of women having abortions were using contraceptives when they became pregnant" and "women obtaining second and higher-order abortions were slightly more likely to have been using a highly effective hormonal method (such as the pill, the patch or the ring) when they became pregnant."

What they don't mention in the press release is that even though around 54% of women having abortions are using some form of contraceptive, a large percentage of them are using them irregularly or inconsistently. For example, on page 30, the study finds that the major reason (around 75%) for failure among pill users was "irregular use." Individuals who used barrier methods cited "used method inconsistently" as the reason for failure about 50% of the time. It should also be noted that more than 45% of the women having abortions used no form of contraception.

AGI also thinks there shouldn't be any barriers which impede abortion providers from getting Title X family planning money and that keeping family planning services "separate and distinguishable" from abortion services has led to more abortions. According to the web page of Planned Parenthood of California, Planned Parenthood gets 14% of Title X money.

Isn't it amazing how every AGI study always concludes that Planned Parenthood needs more money or some commonsense obstacle needs to be removed? It's almost as if the conclusion was foregone regardless of what the study finds.

Serge also has some thoughts