MI abortion rate down 50% since '87

[LuckyTheDog]

This is good news. This represents what the “pro-life” folks should be working on: family planning, education, persuasion, promotion of adoption, etc.

All of this has been shown to slash the abortion rate. There is no justification for going the route of criminalization, jailing doctors and patients and (as some propose) executing women who have abortions and the doctors who perform them.

Criminalizing abortion will not end the practice. It would merely force it underground and make it far less safe.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080523/METRO/805230367/1409/METRO

State health officials said Thursday 24,683 abortions were performed in Michigan last year -- the lowest number since record-keeping began in 1979 and a 50 percent drop from the peak year of 1987.

James McCurtis Jr., spokesman for the Michigan Department of Community Health, said a number of factors have contributed. "One is the continuous push to expand access to family planning in low-income areas and others as well," he said. "We're pushing the message of avoiding unintended pregnancies as a means of reducing abortions."

McCurtis said the state has been waging a successful campaign to reduce teen pregnancies. Over the past decade, there has been a 23 percent reduction in the number of girls 19 and younger who are giving birth, health department records show.

[MichiganVote]

1. Well we are hemorraging in the population dept. so that alone may be a key