{"id":307969,"date":"2024-03-05T08:44:09","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T14:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=307969"},"modified":"2024-03-04T14:41:02","modified_gmt":"2024-03-04T20:41:02","slug":"estimates-abortion-drop-dobbs-questionable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/estimates-abortion-drop-dobbs-questionable\/","title":{"rendered":"Estimates that say abortions didn’t drop after Dobbs are questionable. Here’s why."},"content":{"rendered":"
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(National Review<\/a>) On Wednesday, the Society of Family Planning released updated abortion estimates<\/a>\u00a0from their #WeCount project. Their new estimates include monthly U.S. abortion totals up to September 2023. The new data purportedly show that between July 2023 and September 2023 approximately 81,000 to 89,000 abortions were performed every month. According to their report, these figures are comparable to monthly abortion numbers prior to the\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0decision.\u00a0 This spin has been eagerly picked up by a number of mainstream-media outlets including the Associated Press, the\u00a0Hill<\/em>, and\u00a0U.S. News and World Report.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, the same methodological flaws that were present in past #WeCount estimates are present in this current version. Specifically, the #WeCount project compares monthly post-Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0abortion data to pre-Dobbs\u00a0<\/em>abortion data. However, it estimated abortions for only two months prior to the Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0Dobbs\u00a0<\/em>decision. That is a very small sample size. It should be also noted that Texas and Oklahoma were both enforcing strong pro-life laws before\u00a0Dobbs<\/em>. That reduces the pre-Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0abortion estimates and makes any post-Dobbs<\/em>\u00a0decline appear less dramatic.<\/p>\n

One interesting detail about this new #WeCount report is that it provides estimates of telehealth abortions. It claims that about 16 percent of all abortions performed in the U.S. between July 2023 and September 2023 were done via telehealth. There may be reasons to question these estimates. However, there is good research showing that chemical abortions done under medical supervision pose serious health risks. That over 10,000 chemical abortions are taking place every month in the United States without in-person medical supervision is certainly a cause for concern.<\/p>\n