Unsurprisingly, the mainstream media’s spin is that the pro-life laws that have been enacted since the Dobbs decision have been ineffective at lowering abortion rates. However, there is less here than meets the eye. First, there is a key methodological shortcoming with the #WeCount estimates. The #WeCount project compares a year of post-Dobbs abortion data to only two months of pre-Dobbs abortion data.

This is problematic for two reasons. First, two months is a relatively small sample size of pre-Dobbs data. Abortion totals in April and May of 2022 may not be reflective of abortion totals in other months prior to the Dobbs decision. Second, Texas and Oklahoma were already enforcing strong pro-life laws before Dobbs. That makes the abortion declines in these states after Dobbs appear less dramatic.

[It’s a strange argument nonetheless. What would be the explanation for an increase of abortions in *causative* relation to Dobbs, anyway — revenge abortions? Child sacrifice for political posturing? Wouldn’t that tend to underscore the point that abortions are utilitarian rather than “health care”? — Ed]