Over 1-in-4 women who considered an abortion have instead chosen instead to take their pregnancy to term in states where protections for the unborn were enacted following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade. The data, found in a study by the left-wing Institute of Labor Economics, only covers the first six-months of 2023 but signals to pro-life activists their efforts to save unborn lives is making progress – despite set-backs at the ballot box in the 2022 and 2023 elections.
While pro-life Americans might see the new data as a positive development, Middlebury College professor Caitlin Myers – who co-authored the Institute of Labor Economics study – does not.
“When you make it harder, women can’t always get out of states to obtain abortion,” the abortion advocate Prof. Myers said in an interview. “Most people are getting out of ban states, one way or another, and more people in protected states are getting abortions. And at the same time, this shows something those data cannot show: There’s a significant minority of people in ban states that do get trapped.”
Pushing back, pro-life groups argue the increase in births is good for families, communities, and the United States overall.
“The insinuation of a lot of coverage of such data points is that it’s a bad thing for there to be more children welcomed in states with better laws than in states that fast-track abortion,” said Students for Life president Kristan Hawkins in an interview with the New York Times. Hawkins added, “It’s a triumph that pro-life policies result in lives saved.”
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