The Lesson Of Louisiana

[God Conquers]

I say excommunicate'em. Give people something to talk about and prove their REAL devotion to the Church.

Trying2BFaithful, are you going to look at increases in prescription abortifacients alongside of that? I know that the abortion rates in Canada are going dow, but we have no way of telling how many chemical abortions are perforemed by increased use of the Morning After Pill etc.

[Trying2BFaithful]

God Conquers:

I may take that into consideration in the latter part of my research. However, my project entails multiple Cross-Sectional analyses of state abortive rates for different model years. I may compile all years' data into one spreadsheet and run a panel regression (if you know what that means...this is all Econometrics stuff). Regardless, at this point I'm examining the impact of abortion restrictions on abortive rates by considering 1988 and 1996, four years before and four years after Planned Parenthood vs. Casey, respectively. This landmark case deemed state restrictions (as seen in states like Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Idaho) constitutionally acceptable. Prior, all restrictions had temporary stays attached to them. From the information I've gathered, only parental consent laws induce a statistically significant reduction in abortive rates (according to 1996 data). Informed consent and waiting period laws show little, if any, reduction in abortive rates unfortunately.

When considering most recent years, I will need to consider the use of prescription abortifacients. However, RU486 was not approved by the FDA for use until September of 2000, so all data compiled considering this variable will be for years starting in 2001.

As for my project, if you're interested, the most statistically significant variables that impact abortive rates are teen pregnancy rates (positive impact), population density (positive impact), income (positive impact, believe it or not), and registered Republican percentage (NEGATIVE (yay!) impact). Basically what this means is that if you want to reduce abortion encourage teen abstinence, rural habitation, and Republican registration while discouraging lavish, wealthy lifestyles. Also, when forced to deal with legal abortion, encourage parental consent laws.

Economically speaking, I was actually happy to see that income has a positive impact on abortive rates. By this I mean that for higher the per-capita-income in a state, the higher the abortive rate will be. I was happy to see this because it dispells the Pro-Abortion myth that we need abortion around for all the poor people who need them. Looks likes its the rich aborting most most often! What hypocrisy.

Anyway, I'll be finished with the research in March. It'll be a huge document (at least 100 pages), but if you'd like to see it, I can get you a copy. Needless to say the liberal-minded college I attend won't be happy about my Pro-Life opinion. I really don't care. My data doesn't lie.

[God Conquers]

Wow, That's amesome, and a huge and courageous undertaking. I salute you.

However it doesn't surprise me that abortive rates are higher among the rich. Relativism and greed are perpetuated and fueled by wealth. There are reasons why the Church for centuries has encouraged rural, agrarian lifestyles, and traditionally discouraged business, urban life etc.

Plus, if you're rich you can affortd abortions. And you can afford to not use contraception (or misuse it ). I'm not advocating contraception of course, just stating a mindset. If you are rich, you CAN'T afford the "scandal" of a teen pregnancy, whereas among the poor it is more commonplace.

Anyways, good luck and God Bless with that project.