Rate of abortion
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A study published in the Lancet shows that between 1995 and 2003, the global rate of induced abortions fell from 35 per 1,000 women each year to 29. This period coincides with the rise of the “globalised secular culture” the Pope laments. When the figures are broken down, it becomes clear that, apart from the former Soviet Union, abortion is highest in conservative and religious societies. In largely secular western Europe, the average rate is 12 abortions per 1,000 women. In the more religious southern European countries, the average rate is 18. In the US, where church attendance is still higher, there are 23 abortions for every 1,000 women, the highest level in the rich world. In central and South America, where the Catholic church holds greatest sway, the rates are 25 and 33 respectively. In the very conservative societies of east Africa, it’s 39. One abnormal outlier is the UK: our rate is six points higher than that of our western European neighbours.
I am not suggesting a sole causal relationship: the figures also reflect changing demographies. But it’s clear that religious conviction does little to reduce abortion and plenty to increase it. The highest rates of all - 44 per 1,000 - occur in the former Soviet Union: under communism, contraceptives were almost impossible to obtain. But, thanks to better access to contraception, this is also where the decline is fastest: in 1995 the rate was twice as high. There has been a small rise in abortion in western Europe, attributed by the Guttmacher Institute in the US to “immigration of people with low levels of contraceptive awareness”. The explanation, in other words, is consistent: more contraception means less abortion.
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It’s not secularism, secular ethics, or atheism which causes increases in abortion rates; instead, it’s the heavy hand of puritanical, patriarchal religion in a society where women are gaining power, equality, and wealth. Regardless of how religious a society is or what the religion is, increasing affluence and increasing female equality leads to desires for lower families. What male religious leaders can’t seem to understand is that women don’t want to spend all their days pregnant, nursing, and/or caring for children. Women actually want careers, autonomous lives, luxuries, and free time — you know, those things which so many men take for granted already.
Patriarchal religion resists the drive towards female autonomy — women must not be allowed to live lives not devoted to being baby factories — and so opposes sex education, contraception, or the right to control one’s reproductive health. This leads to more unwanted pregnancies and, naturally also an increased demand for abortions. Religious and political leaders who merely want to reduce abortion rates should jump at the chance to follow the lead of the Netherlands, where abortion rates are lowest in the world.
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The fact that religious and political leaders not only don’t want to emmulate the Netherlands, but in fact condemn what is done in that country and then proceed to recommend those policies which demonstrably increase abortion rates, proves that something more is going on. That “something more” is the desire to control sexuality, especially female sexuality, and women generally. What patriarchal religious leaders are unable to understand, though, is that women will find a way to end unwanted pregnancies.