New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- A new report by the Guttmacher Institute claims as many as 70,000 women are dying from unsafe, illegal abortions across the globe. However, the former affiliate of the Planned Parenthood abortion business admits that its figures come from groups working to promote and legalize abortions.

Guttmacher's new report indicates the number of abortions worldwide fell from an estimated 45.5 million in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003.

The abortion rate, it says, dropped between 1995 and 2003 from 20 to 15 per 1,000 women aged 15–44.

About 70,000 women die each year from the effects of illegal abortions, Guttmacher claims, though it provides little in the way of proof of its numbers other than relying on disputed numbers from the United Nations.

Major mainstream media outlets ranging from the Associated Press to Reuters are relying on the report for news articles claiming a massive epidemic of illegal abortions that are supposedly hurting women.

Even Guttmacher admits in its report that abortions worldwide are "difficult to document" and note how it is "difficult to obtain detailed, reliable information about the practice of" abortion in many nations where abortions are illegal. As a result, Guttmacher says it relies on "indirect methods for estimating the incidence of abortion."

Yet that doesn't stop the agency from advocating that every nation across the world legalize abortions to stop a supposed epidemic of illegal abortions killing women.

Guttmacher says the information and figures in its new report come from the very groups that are working in nations in places such as Africa and South America to legalize abortions.

Its report "is based on findings from a wide range of sources" including "studies by national and international groups whose work focuses on specialized areas, such as
abortion legislation."

The reports reference section reads like a who's who of the pro-abortion movement and Guttmacher's facts and figures are based off of reports from groups like the International Planned Parenthood, Population Council, Center for Reproductive Rights, and local pro-abortion groups and activists.

Guttmacher goes as far as to thank these pro-abortion organizations in its introduction, saying, "The authors are grateful for the suggestions and advice
offered by the following colleagues."

They name Hedia Belhadj of the pro-abortion UNFPA, staff from the pro-abortion group Ipas, Tania Boler of the British-based abortion business Marie Stopes
International, staff from the Center for Reproductive Rights, the International Planned
Parenthood Federation, and other local abortion advocates.

Dr. Michael New, a political science professor at the University of Alabama, talked with LifeNews.com today about the new report.

He said he is disappointed to find "the media has been hard at work spinning the findings."

"Both Associated Press and USA Today are reporting the finding that abortion rates in countries with protective abortion laws are similar to abortion rates in countries with permissive laws," he notes. They are "hinting strongly that protective legislation does little to protect unborn children."

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