Sweden Abortions Increase Despite Much Higher Sales of Morning After Pill

International   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Aug 24, 2008   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Sweden Abortions Increase Despite Much Higher Sales of Morning After Pill

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 24
, 2008

Stockholm, Sweden (LifeNews.com) — The number of abortions has increased 17 percent in Sweden from 2000 to 2007 despite sales of the morning after pill increasing during the same time period. The data provides more evidence abortion advocates are misleading the public in saying the Plan B drug helps reduce abortions.

The morning after pill became a drug that could be sold over the counter in Sweden in 2001 and abortion advocates touted non-prescription sales in the United States as a panacea for reducing abortions.

In that time, sales of the drug tripled in the nation’s capital and doubled nationwide.

Still, new national figures show 37,205 abortions in Sweden in 2007, up approximately 17 percent from the 30,980 done in 2000. In Stockholm, 10,259 abortions were done — a 6.9 percent increase in just one year from the 2006 figures.

Despite the clear evidence that the use of birth control and contraception is not lowering abortion rates, Lena Marions senior physician at Karolinska University Hospital, told the Dagens Nyheter news service that more is needed.

The rise in abortions despite the use of the morning after pill isn’t a surprise with numbers from Scotland showing the same phenomenon.

In May, Scotland officials noted that the number of abortions rose for the third straight year despite a heavy push for women to use the morning after pill.

Abortions in Scotland rose four percent according to a report from the British national health service and now number 13,703.

That increase came after NHS reported 13,081 abortions in 2006, up from 12,603 the previous year — an increase of nearly 3.8 percent. The new numbers represent an all-time high for the number of abortions done in that part of Great Britain since abortion was legalized in 1967.

Not only is the increased promoting of the morning after pill resulting in more abortions, not less, the number of women having repeat abortions is increasing as well.

NHS reports more than a quarter of women, 26.3 percent, who had an abortion in Scotland last year had at least one prior abortion before that. That’s 3,600 women who had one or more abortions prior, according to the government’s statistics.

Abortion advocates have claimed higher use of the Plan B drug through over the counter sales will result in a drop in unintended pregnancies and fewer abortions. However, research and reports show that’s not happening.

Dr. Joseph Stanford, associate professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine, says studies he and fellow researchers have done show a lower effectiveness rate than the 89 percent Barr Laboratories claims.
"We did more a precise meta-analysis that shows it’s effective only 72 percent of the time, and even that number is optimistic," he indicated.

He said studies from Europe, China and the United States show that the morning after pill does not reduce abortions.

 

Sign Up for Free Pro-Life News From LifeNews.com

Daily Pro-Life News Report Twice-Weekly Pro-Life
News Report
Receive a free daily email report from LifeNews.com with the latest pro-life news stories on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here. Receive a free twice-weekly email report with the latest pro-life news headlines on abortion, euthanasia and stem cell research. Sign up here.