Study: Abortion on the rise for poor women

Posted by Evan Derkacz at 12:05 PM on August 4, 2006.

In the Guttmacher Institute's latest report, Amie Newman (aka my sister) sees "an all-out assault on women, particularly lower-income women."

The decades-long decline in the U.S. abortion rate slowed yet again in 2003, adding to mounting evidence that the nation is failing to help women prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion, according to a new analysis by the Guttmacher Institute.

[W]hile the overall rate of unintended pregnancy in the U.S. remained unchanged between 1994 and 2001, rates increased by 29% among poor women, even as they declined by 20% for more affluent women.

Duh. What do you expect to happen when...

you withhold sex education, restrict access to abortion and even fund bogus "crisis pregnancy centers" meant to fool and cajole women into having babies they can't and don't want to have?

Amie writes:

What's truly appalling is that the federal government, OUR government, spent $131 million last year (2005) on abstinence-only education - "education" that has not given our youth the tools they need to lead healthy lives. The administration has certainly not let up in 2006, continuing to increase funding for these morality and religious-based programs (which, come on, should not be called education but agenda) while at the same time decreasing funding for - or all out ignoring - medically and scientifically proven health education programs that would have a positive effect on our young people's sexual health. Once again, studies show that an age-appropriate, medically accurate sexual health curriculum that includes information about both contraception as well as abstinence is the most effective method of reaching and teaching teens thereby reducing teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates.

Read more for info about the effect of health care (or lack of) and income on unwanted pregnancy HERE. (Tikvahgirl)

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.