1. Promises Unkept:
How 40 Years of Legal Abortion
Has Failed To Lower Crime, Child Abuse, and Out of Wedlock Births
Michael J. New, Ph.D.
@Michael_J_New
University of Michigan -- Dearborn
Adjunct Scholar, Charlotte Lozier Institute
Media Summit, December 4th, 2012

3. Types of Presentations

4. Types of Presentations
1) Fun
Presented at Press Conferences

5. Types of Presentations
1) Fun
Presented at Press Conferences
2) Serious
Presented in Washington, DC

6. Types of Presentations
1) Fun
Presented at Press Conferences
2) Serious
Presented in Washington, DC
3) Fun and Serious
Presented at Press Conferences in Washington, DC

7. Quotes from Abortion Proponents
• “A policy that makes contraception and abortion
freely available will greatly reduce the number of
unwanted children, and thereby curb the tragic
rise of child abuse in our country.” (NARAL, 1978)
• “The impact of the abortion revolution may be
too vast to assess immediately. It should usher in
an era when every child will be wanted, loved,
and properly cared for.”
(NARAL Founder Larry Lader, 1974)

8. Presentation Outline
1) How Abortion Failed To Lower Out Of
Wedlock Birthrates
2) How Abortion Failed to Lower Child Abuse
3) How Abortion Failed to Lower Crime

9. 1) How Abortion Failed To Lower Out of Wedlock Birthrates
• Argument made by abortion proponents was
clear
• Legal abortion would grant sexually active
single women the ability to terminate their
pregnancies.
• Hence fewer out of wedlock births

10. 1) How Abortion Failed To Lower Out of Wedlock Birthrates
• However, it did not work out that way…
– Abortion changed sexual mores
– People became more likely to engage in premarital sex
– People became less careful about using contraception
– Taboos regarding sex before marriage weakened
– Conceptions increased by 30 percent

11. 1) How Abortion Failed To Lower Out of Wedlock Birthrates
• However, it did not work out that way…
– Abortion changed sexual mores
– People became more likely to engage in premarital sex
– People became less careful about using contraception
– Taboos regarding sex before marriage weakened
– Conceptions increased by 30 percent
– A higher percentage of these conceptions were aborted

12. 1) How Abortion Failed To Lower Out of Wedlock Birthrates
• However, it did not work out that way…
– Abortion changed sexual mores
– People became more likely to engage in premarital sex
– People became less careful about using contraception
– Taboos regarding sex before marriage weakened
– Conceptions increased by 30 percent
– A higher percentage of these conceptions were aborted
• But the out of wedlock birthrate continued to climb…

14. 2) How Abortion Failed To Lower Child Abuse
• Argument made by abortion proponents was
again clear
• „Wanted‟ children would be less likely to be
abused than „unwanted children‟

15. 2) How Abortion Failed To Lower Child Abuse
• However, it did not work out that way
– A high percentage of child abuse occurs against
„wanted children‟ (Lenoski 1973)
– Abortion did not reduce the out of wedlock
birthrate
– Women who obtain abortions are more likely to
abuse their own children (Coleman 2005)

16. 2) How Abortion Failed To Lower Child Abuse
There are psychological reasons why abortion might lead to more child abuse
(Ney)
1) Abortion decreases an individual's instinctual restraint against the occasional rage felt toward those
dependent on his or her care.
2) Permissive abortion diminishes the taboo against aggressing [against] the defenseless.
3) Abortion increases the hostility between the generations.
4) Abortion has devalued children, thus diminishing the value of caring for children.
5) Abortion increases guilt and self-hatred, which the parent takes out on the child.
6) Abortion increases hostile frustration, intensifying the battle of the sexes, for which children are
scapegoated.
7) Abortion cuts the developing mother-infant bond, thereby diminishing her future mothering capability.

17. 2) How Abortion Failed To Lower Child Abuse
Since 1973 child abuse has increased by over
1,000 percent in the United States
-- U.S. National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect
Between 1973 and 1990 deaths due to child
abuse increased by 400 percent
-- U.S. Statistical Abstract

18. 2) How Abortion Failed To Lower Child Abuse
• THE INCREASE OF CHILD ABUSE IN THE UNITED STATES, 1972-1990
• Reported Reported Abuse Cases Rate Increase
Deaths Due Cases Per 1,000 Over Previous
Year to Abuse of Abuse Population Year
• 1972 356 427,100 2.05
1973 386 452,800 2.16 5%
1974 401 480,100 2.26 5%
1975 448 509,000 2.38 5%
1976 485 537,700 2.48 4%
1977 496 572,100 2.61 5%
1978 595 606,600 2.73 5%
1979 579 707,400 3.16 16%
1980 622 785,100 3.46 9%
1981 677 846,200 3.70 7%
1982 714 924,100 4.01 8%
1983 807 1,001,400 4.31 7%
1984 820 1,255,600 5.43 26%
1985 899 1,499,400 6.50 20%
1986 1,181 1,673,400 7.28 12%
1987 1,163 2,025,200 8.43 16%
1988 1,225 2,298,100 9.62 14%
1989 1,332 2,607,800 10.42 8%
1990 1,448 2,959,100 11.59 11%

19. 3) How abortion failed to lower crime
• Argument gained currency with publication of “The Impact of
Legalized Abortion on Crime” in The Quarterly Journal of
Economics in 2001 (Levitt and Donohue)
• Argument was straightforward
• Legal Abortion lowered population of demographic groups likely to
engage in crime
• Abortion rights groups shied away from this argument because of its
eugenic implications
• It still gained currency among the general public because of the
media coverage and the publication of Levitt‟s Freakonomics

20. 3) How abortion failed to lower crime
• Problems with the Levitt and Donohue argument
• They argued that states that legalized abortion before 1973
(NY, CA, WA) saw an earlier decrease in the crime rate
– But a fairly high percentage of people who obtained abortions in
these states came from out of state
• They argued that states with high abortion rates in 1970s
and 1980s had bigger crime rates declines
– But they failed to account for interstate migration (Many people
are raised in a different state than the one they were born)

21. 3) How abortion failed to lower crime
• Better criticisms come from those who looked at
the demographics of crime (Sailer, Lott, Whitely)
• If Donohue and Levitt are correct, young people
should be less likely to commit crimes
• However, crime data shows the exact opposite,
people born after Roe v. Wade became more likely
to commit crimes

24. Conclusion
• No empirical evidence that legal abortion has
benefitted society as a whole
– Abortion has failed to reduce out of wedlock births
– Abortion has failed to reduce child abuse
– Abortion has failed to reduce crime