One should know about what one speaks
Better Reporting for Abortions
By CHARLES A. DONOVAN, NYT
WASHINGTON
FORTY years after Roe v. Wade, Americans seem to be traveling in opposite directions on abortion. The Democratic Party’s latest platform opposes “any and all efforts to weaken or undermine” legal abortion. On the other hand, the last two years saw the adoption by state legislatures of the highest number of laws regulating or restricting abortion in decades.
Is there anything the contending sides in the abortion debate can agree on?
I have a suggestion: wherever we stand on the issue, we ought to have access to high-quality, up-to-date information on how many women in each state are undergoing the procedure, by what method, at what stage of pregnancy and how many times. We should know the age of the women involved and, if relevant, whether there was parental notice. Americans should insist that abortion statistics be comprehensively gathered, rapidly totaled and assessed, and reliably published by a publicly accountable body.
Many would be surprised to know that this is not already the case. As a recent study by my organization, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, documents, abortion reporting varies considerably state by state. Most states mandate the gathering of data; most publish some type of report; and most share data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which publishes an annual report. (And of course all keep the names of individual women seeking abortions confidential.)
(More here.)
WASHINGTON
FORTY years after Roe v. Wade, Americans seem to be traveling in opposite directions on abortion. The Democratic Party’s latest platform opposes “any and all efforts to weaken or undermine” legal abortion. On the other hand, the last two years saw the adoption by state legislatures of the highest number of laws regulating or restricting abortion in decades.
Is there anything the contending sides in the abortion debate can agree on?
I have a suggestion: wherever we stand on the issue, we ought to have access to high-quality, up-to-date information on how many women in each state are undergoing the procedure, by what method, at what stage of pregnancy and how many times. We should know the age of the women involved and, if relevant, whether there was parental notice. Americans should insist that abortion statistics be comprehensively gathered, rapidly totaled and assessed, and reliably published by a publicly accountable body.
Many would be surprised to know that this is not already the case. As a recent study by my organization, the Charlotte Lozier Institute, documents, abortion reporting varies considerably state by state. Most states mandate the gathering of data; most publish some type of report; and most share data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which publishes an annual report. (And of course all keep the names of individual women seeking abortions confidential.)
(More here.)
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