Our Oct. 12 issue featured a story about the claim of pro-life Catholics who support Sen. Barack Obama that his social safety net policies will actually do more to reduce the number of abortions than a McCain presidency.
That's a bold argument to make, and one that has little support in facts, argues George Weigel in a new Newsweek article. For example, he points out that Sweden has a much more robust system of social support than we do, but has the same rate of abortions — 25 percent — per pregnancy. And he points to Guttmacher Institute data showing that only 23 percent of U.S. women getting abortions cite economic hardship as their primary reason.
Richard Doerflinger, the associate director of the U.S. bishops' pro-life office, also recently deconstructed what he called the "myth" that laws against abortion don't actually reduce them. He also addressed the "various false claims" used to support that argument.
