On Wednesday, The Hill published “Want Fewer Abortions? Vote for Harris,” an opinion piece by Northwestern law professor Andrew Koppelman. He makes arguments similar to that of his predecessors. These arguments have not improved with age. While I cannot correct each of Koppelman’s misrepresentations in a single blogpost, I will address his main points.
Overall abortion numbers have not declined as pro-lifers might have hoped in the aftermath of Dobbs. That said, multiple analyses of state birth data provide powerful evidence that newly enacted pro-life laws have saved thousands of lives. Three separate studies of Texas birth data have found that the Texas Heartbeat Act has saved approximately 1,000 lives every month. Additionally, an Institute of Labor Economics study analyzed birth data from 37 states and the District of Columbia and found that pro-life laws saved over 32,000 lives in the first six months of 2023.
Koppelman is correct that increases in chemical abortions have increased the abortion rate. However, he conveniently forgets that in the Biden administration the FDA has played a large role in making chemical-abortion policy even more permissive. In the Biden administration, the FDA continued the Covid-era policy of allowing women to obtain chemical-abortion pills without an in-person medical exam. This was dangerous to women and fatal to countless preborn children. […]
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