Report Shows Contraception Failure, 54% Used Before Abortion

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Jan 11, 2011   |   4:57PM   |   Washington, DC

The number of abortions would decrease in the United States if only contraception and birth control were promoted to a higher degree, abortion advocates say, but the new abortion report issued today by the Guttmacher Institute puts that notion to rest.

The report showed the decline in abortions that had been taking place over the last two decades has finally stopped. Instead, abortions increased very slightly, though the addition of abortion centers to the new 2008 report that did not make their abortions totals known in 2005 likely accounts for the increase.

The stoppage of the decline in abortions come as Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates successfully lobbied the Obama administration and Congress to shift taxpayer funding from abstinence education to family planning, arguing it will decrease abortions further. Yet, the report indicates a majority of abortions took place after contraception failure.

The Guttmacher report shows “54 percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method *usually condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant.” These figures are similar to those of a report in Spain showing abortions doubling despite increased family planning promotion.

And, of the women who say they did not intend to become pregnant, the report said “most of these women have practiced contraception in the past.”

Despite the figures and the failure of birth control and contraception to arrest the abortion figures, Planned Parenthood said in a statement it should be promoted further.

“The first step we can take as a nation is to increase access to affordable contraception,” reads the statement. “The most effective way to prevent unintended pregnancy, and reduce the need for abortion, is to improve access to affordable birth control.”

The report “underscores need for access to affordable birth control ” the abortion giant added.

But Thomas Peters of CatholicVote.org says Planned Parenthood is clearly misreading the numbers.

“Like clockwork the abortion industry has responded with the only response they have left: ‘this is why we need more birth control,'” he said. “This response despite the fact that over half of women who obtain abortions admit to being on or using birth control the month they became pregnant.”

“In other words, when faced with the raw numbers that contraceptive use does not rule out “unplanned” pregnancies, Planned Parenthood responds by saying we need more contraceptive use. That’s like a textbook definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result,” he added.

“Why do women who have sex keep getting pregnant, even when they use birth control?” he asks. “Three reasons: first, sex is designed to make babies (duh) and no matter how hard we try to avoid it – sex keeps making babies. Second, because the pill and barrier methods have a statistically-significant failure rate, over time, most women who habitually use birth control can expect at some point it will fail them and they will get pregnant. Third and finally, people don’t always use birth control correctly.”

“These three points above confirm the fact that birth control will never, of itself, eliminate “unplanned” or “unwanted” pregnancies,” he said. “In fact, Planned Parenthood and the pro-abortion feminists have no way of guaranteeing that even more birth control will result in fewer abortions. In fact, there is evidence to suggest the opposite happens: people are more likely to have an “unplanned” pregnancy if they falsely believe birth control will save them, making them in turn less prudent about their sexual choices.”

“If you press an abortion proponent on any of these issues, if they are honest, they will eventually fall back on the real issue: abortion is the ultimate form of birth control, because the final goal of all birth control is the same: to prevent women from having babies,” he concluded.

The Guttmacher report appears to bear out that conclusion.

The reasons women give for having an abortion are birth control in nature. Asked to check off a list with more than one reason, 75 percent say they can’t afford to have a baby, 75 percent say having a baby would interfere with work or school, and half say they don’t want to become a single parent or have issues of having a child with their husband or partner.