According to a researcher, differences in the data on abortion emphasize the need for federal reporting rules.
According to a scholar and researcher, discrepancies between the data on abortion provided by two reporting agencies show the need for legally required reporting regulations.
Michael New, an assistant professor of social research at The Catholic University of America and associate scholar at the pro-life research organization Charlotte Lozier Institute, summarized his analysis of the Guttmacher Institute’s 2020 abortion data in an email on Monday to The Christian Post.
The 2020 Abortion Provider Census, which was released by the Guttmacher Institute on Thursday, revealed that the abortion rate climbed by 1% in that year. The previous research division of Planned Parenthood found that abortion rates rose in 32 of the 50 states, including all four geographical regions.
“Indeed, a comparison between the [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] data and the Guttmacher data demonstrates the weakness of federal abortion-reporting requirements,” New wrote in his analysis published by National Review. “Forty-seven states reported data to both the CDC and Guttmacher in 2020. In these 47 states, the CDC counted approximately 114,000 fewer abortions than Guttmacher did — an undercount of more than 16 percent.”
New asserted that the “comparison between the CDC data and the Guttmacher data demonstrates the weakness of federal abortion-reporting requirements.”
In some areas, the differences between the abortion data from the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute were large, according to New.
For instance, the CDC underestimated the number of abortions in New York by around 47,000, or nearly 42%. The CDC indicated that there were almost 25,000 fewer abortions in New Jersey.
Chemical abortion rates have increased, according to the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute. According to Guttmacher, there was a 44% increase in chemical abortions between 2017 and 2020. Chemical abortions now account for 53% of all abortions, up from 39% previously.
New believes the COVID-19 pandemic was partly responsible for this increase. However, he also noted that the chemical abortion rate has been increasing for quite some time.
Kristi Hamrick, chief media and policy strategist at Students for Life of America, stated that most abortion data in the U.S. comes from abortionists and that the country does not have a national reporting law.
“Name another ‘industry’ allowed to push deadly drugs and sell death without oversight that is reputable and trustworthy because any person with common sense can see that it’s clearly a formula for lies and abuse,” Hamrick wrote in a statement to CP.
“With a bad data pool coming from bad actors, it’s no surprise that they can’t get their stories straight.”
Hamrick directed CP to an op-ed Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins published in The Washington Times last month. In the op-ed. Hawkins emphasized how the lack of a national abortion reporting law raises doubts about the safety of the practice.
Hawkins asserted that the Guttmacher Institute’s ties to Planned Parenthood make for unreliable reporting. She also noted that by the CDC’s admission, the organization only collects abortion data voluntarily.
Hawkins said that improper reporting was to blame for the last year’s relaxation of regulations on chemical abortion pills, saying “our failure to track abortion results, complications, and long-term repercussions creates a falsehood in both surgical abortion and chemical abortion pill marketing.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration temporarily waived the in-person restriction for purchasing chemical abortion pills during the COVID-19 outbreak; the decision was made permanent in December.
“Everyone, whether pro-life or pro-choice, should be concerned about the safety of women.” “Recently, our fellow people have repeatedly urged our leaders to find common ground whenever possible,” Hawkins asserts.
“After this election, everyone should be able to support a national abortion reporting law on a topic as divisive as abortion.”
Hawkins noted that compared to reporting in the U.S., studies from countries with more reliable data on abortion often provide better insight into complications.
A 2004 study published in the Obstetrics and Gynecology journal compared mortality rates for women ages 15 to 49 in Finland who were pregnant or within one year of pregnancy termination from 1987 to 2000. The study found that the mortality rate after birth (28.2/100,000) was significantly lower than the mortality rate after an induced abortion (83.1/100,000).
Joy Stockbauer, a policy analyst for the Christian conservative advocacy group Family Research Council, seconded these concerns abort reporting data in a Monday statement to CP.
She noted that the disparity between the Guttmacher Institute and the CDC’s annual counts is because the former gathers data directly from abortion providers. The CDC, on the other hand, collects data from individual health departments.
“A similar disparity occurred in 2019, when the CDC reported 98,434 fewer abortions than the Guttmacher Institute did for the 47 states that voluntarily reported,” Stockbauer wrote.
“Overall, the lack of comprehensive reporting of abortion data prevents the CDC from accurately assessing the complications caused by abortion and the dangers abortion poses to women,” she continued. “Furthermore, the clear inaccuracies in abortion reporting make it impossible to truly know how many unborn Americans’ lives this horrific practice has taken.”
As The Christian Post reported last month, the new data released by the CDC reported that surgical abortions decreased slightly in 2020 while chemical abortions increased. The study recorded 620,327 legally induced abortions reported to the organization from 49 reporting areas. The CDC found that the number of abortions and the abortion rate fell by 2% from 2019 to 2020.
In a statement to CP at the time, New likened the decrease in surgical abortion numbers to state policy decisions during COVID. Missouri, along with Texas and Alabama, quit doing abortions during the pandemic, and surgical abortion numbers notably declined in these states.
According to New, there are various reasons why pro-lifers should be concerned about the rise in chemical abortion rates. “CDC data found that abortions increased in both 2018 and 2019, even though CDC data indicated that [surgical] abortions declined in 2020.”
He stated, “The growth in chemical abortions was a significant factor in this increase.”
Additionally, the FDA permitted women to purchase chemical abortion pills without a physical examination for a portion of the COVID-19 pandemic. Tragically, the FDA during the Biden administration has maintained this approach.
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