As I argued two years ago, abortions by and large aren’t the result of poor access to birth control. Instead, most abortions happen because people intentionally engage in high-risk sexual activity and use abortion as a backup. But this is a country with a million abortions a year, so even a small change can save a lot of lives. We need to bear all of this in mind when trying to reduce abortion in the context of Roe v. Wade.
This survey of women having abortions — conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank strongly supportive of abortion rights — is highly instructive.
Forty-six percent of respondents didn’t use any form of contraception at all in the month they became pregnant. Perhaps they didn’t use the pill because it would have required an expensive visit to the doctor — but if that’s the problem, it’s awfully difficult to explain why they didn’t use condoms either. The potential improvement here is in situations where people (A) would rather have unprotected sex than use a condom; (B) would rather have unprotected sex than take a pill every day if that pill requires a doctor’s visit; and yet (C) would rather take a pill every day than have unprotected sex if that pill is sold over the counter. I won’t guess how often these three categories overlap, but I doubt it’s a high number.
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