One of the justifications for the ultrasound requirements that some states (including Idaho) are considering is that if women considering an abortion, seeing that the "fetal tissue" looks like a very, very small baby, and has a heartbeat, may cause some women to change their minds.
One of my readers pointed me to this, which reports that 72% of women who were planning an abortion change their minds after seeing the ultrasound. I am a bit skeptical, partly because this survey was done of women who had gone to a pro-life pregnancy counseling service--where I would not expect women who were terribly committed to abortion to go. It would be like doing a survey of people going to a steakhouse, and discovering that a large fraction were committed vegetarians. In addition, this is only a press release, not the full study.
I am curious to see studies on both studies of this--but I am not finding much actual data on either side of this. If you know of any, please let me know.
UPDATE: Never mind, found them.
Good point, Clayton. I'm the reader that pointed you to "this". I trust you will publish your analysis of the data you found on both sides?
ReplyDeleteI've submitted an article on the subject to PJ Media. The data on both sides concerning this issue is very thin, and likely severely injured by the selection bias problems inherent in something like this. The bigger point of the article is the insanity of abortion as birth control, even for those who don't have a moral problem with it.
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