Why Abortion Rate Is Lowest It's Been Since 1973

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The abortion rate keeps dropping. The latest numbers from the CDC, released last week, show that the abortion rate is the lowest it’s been since 1973, the year the Supreme Court manufactured a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade.

This raises two important questions: What is the cause of the decline in abortion? And how can we build on this success to protect the right to life for the hundreds of thousands of unborn lives that still fall victim to abortion each year?

There’s No Irony Here

Writing at The Atlantic, David Frum suggests that the acceptance of unwed childbearing is the key to the drop in abortion: “Ironically, the socially conservative pro-life movement has made its peace with unwed parenthood as an alternative to abortion.” He renders the movement’s history to arrive at this conclusion in the following way:

This is the fascinating irony of the pro-life movement. The cause originated as a profoundly socially conservative movement. Yet as it grew, it became less sectarian. Women came to the fore as leaders. It found a new language of concern and compassion, rather than condemnation and control. Most radically and decisively, the movement made its peace with unwed parenthood as the inescapable real-world alternative to abortion.

There’s nothing ironic here. From the beginning, the pro-life movement has been about assisting women in crisis pregnancies. The movement that launched crisis-pregnancy centers, the Sisters of Life, and so many other organizations to help house, feed, clothe, and care for expecting mothers has always viewed unwed motherhood as vastly superior to abortion.