Hillary and "Rare" Abortion
by Michael Thompson

During a speech to the New York State Family Planning Providers in January, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton said she wanted to make abortion a “rare” event.

Smart political move if one considers public opinion polls. Every year, polls indicate that most Americans support tighter limits on abortion. According to a 2000 Gallup poll, fewer than four out of ten Americans indicated that abortion should be legal in “all” or “some” circumstances, rather than “few” or “none”. In 1987, researchers with The Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research affiliate of Planned Parenthood, revealed that 93 percent of abortion patients sought abortion for social reasons, instead of rape, incest or the life of the mother. Since then, most Americans have consistently rejected these individual reasons in surveys.

Nonetheless, some were surprised that the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate in 2008 would use the word “rare” in front of New York abortion providers. New York accounts for 12 percent of all abortions in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six out of ten New York City abortions were performed in 2001 on women who received one or more previous abortion. The Alan Guttmacher Institute said that “New York does not have any of the major types of abortion restrictions – such as waiting periods, mandated parental involvement or limitations on publicly funded abortions – often found in other states.”

In her speech, Senator Clinton noted that “seven percent of American women who do not use contraception account for 53 percent of all unintended pregnancies. So by preventing unintended pregnancy, contraception reduces the need for abortion.” Yet, Randall K. O'Bannon of the National Right to Life Committee said that Clinton has yet to support a direct solution to the abortion problem. “Instead, she favors spending more money to support groups that [perform abortions],”said O’Bannon.

Does contraception reduce the need for abortion, as the Senator from New York claims? David C. Reardon, author of Making Abortion Rare, mentioned the double digit failure rates of many contraceptives and said they would do nothing for women who intentionally get pregnant then change their minds. Discussing women who receive multiple abortions, he said: “Women are not getting pregnant again because they prefer abortion to contraception. Many do it because they’re hoping to maybe carry this one to term.” Post-abortion expert Thomas W. Strahan found that “a number of studies have shown that despite contraceptive knowledge, women will repeat abortion.”

Repeat abortions are the norm across the United States. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, nearly 50 percent of all U.S. abortions are repeat abortions. The California Catholic Conference reported that 1448 women received two or more taxpayer-funded abortions in California in the year 2000.

“Whatever the abortion industry is doing hasn’t worked to solve the problem. If ‘rare’, why are so many people returning?” said O'Bannon.

Reardon criticized abortionists for their “high-volume, low-involvement” approach to patient care. “Most abortion clinics allow very limited time periods for individual counseling (as little as five minutes).” He said adequate patient-physician counseling about would reduce repeat abortions and said abortion physicians have shirked their duty to fully inform patients about the abortion risks to speed “the assembly line process.”

As the fight over U.S. Supreme Court nominees ensues and the presidential race approaches, it remains to be seen whether Senator Clinton will discuss repeat abortions in New York or clarify what she means by “rare.” Former Supreme Court nominee, Robert Bork took issue with her husband’s use of this poll-tested word. As Bork asked pointedly in Slouching Towards Gomorrah, “Why rare if it is merely a choice, a medical procedure without moral problems?”

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