Two pro-choice myths

Back in 2010, I wrote a response to something a friend of a friend of a friend had written on the pro-choice/pro-life debate. In the comment section, somebody gave me four different links that supposedly showed that laws against abortion have no affect on abortion rates. It turned out that all four links referred to just one study, and I didn't think the study showed what this person thought it showed.

Later on, a friend of mine on facebook (the same friend who had the friend who had the pro-choice friend) announced to all her pro-life friends that it had been proven (she put 'proven' in all caps) that abortion bans did not prevent abortions but only lead to women dying horrible deaths. I questioned her about that, mentioning how somebody else had previously told me about a study that I didn't think showed any such thing. I explained to her why I didn't think the study showed what the other guy claimed it showed, and I asked her if she had anything else for me to look at. She gave me three sources. I looked at them, and all three of them pointed to that same study that the guy on my blog pointed me to.

So it turned out that there's just one study that people keep pointing to as proof that abortion bans don't prevent abortions: "The Incidence of Abortion Worldwide" by Stanley K. Henshaw, Susheela Singh, and Taylor Haas.

I recently found a post on the Secular Pro-Life Perspective blog that addresses this study, then cites several sources showing that abortion bans do stop abortions, and I thought you might like to have a look-see: "Pro-life laws stop abortions. Here's the evidence." by Candace Stewart.

Another thing that has come up in a few of my abortion conversations as recently as a week or two ago is the "fact" that abortion only accounts for 3% of the services that Planned Parenthood provides. This is a highly misleading figure, and if you just google "Planned Parenthood 3%," there are a few articles that debunk it just on the first page. Here is a video I found on YouTube that explains what's wrong with it: "Debunking Planned Parenthood's '3%' Abortion Myth."