The point is that if abortions went up under Bush versus the prior president we need to be asking a number of serious questions beginning with 'why?'.
Sounds good to me, especially when we consider that Bush takes a moderate pro-life position.
Jonathan Hughes wrote:
I would also point out that this was a statistician using abortion and economic numbers to make his case.
Sorry, but Joshua Holland is not a statistician. He is an ex-video producer and multimedia designer who is Editor-in-Chief of USC's lefty, activist newspaper, "Trojan Horse."
http://gadflyer.com/writers/writer.php?WriterID=148
The man Holland quotes, Glen Harold Stassen, is not a statistician either, but rather an "ethics professor."
http://www.fuller.edu/provost/faculty/dbsearch/final_record.asp?id=81
One of the first things they teach us in statistics class is the difference between correlation analysis and regression analysis. A correlation between two variables does not automatically establish a cause and effect relationship. It only points to a possible relationship. It is very possible that a cause and effect relationship does not exist when two variables are shown to be correlated together.
Let me give you an example of incorrectly interpreting a correlation. Get data on all the fires for the last 10 years. Correlate the number of fire trucks at each of these fires and the amount of damage in dollars caused at each fire. Note the significant relationship between the number of fire trucks at each fire and the amount of damage. Without knowing much about the cause and effect relationships here, one might be tempted to conclude that fire trucks are what cause the damage at fires because there is always greater damage caused when there are more fire trucks at the fire.
Obviously, this would be an absurd conclusion. Both variables here are correlated with the size of the fire. A larger fire causes more damage and a larger fire causes more fire trucks to respond in their effort to minimize the damage caused by the fire. Trying to establish a cause and effect relationship between the number of fire trucks and the amount of damage would be foolish.
This example is rather clear, but there are many situations where the relationship is not so clear. This example that you have posted is apparently one of those for those who think that poor economic times is the primary reason that people elect to have abortions. To others who do not see such a powerful cause and effect relationship between economics and demand for abortion, such a suggestion is just as absurd as concluding that fire trucks cause more damage at fires because of the correlation between the number of fire trucks and the amount of damage caused by fires.
Jonathan Hughes wrote:
What I am attempting to do with this article is to get people to actually take a look at an issue without the partisan glasses on. Here is a Christian statistician from a highly respected seminary who is pro-life. When he takes a good look at the stats, at the economics, at supply-side reproductive health, at the partial birth ban, and at the criminalization of abortion he comes to a different conclusion to that of most uninformed people. We can at least listen as you did, or toss the article away with flippant comments like others have.
Please read your paragraph above and consider that you are the one who is viewing information through your own biased glasses. Note the following as you read it.
1. This was NOT a Christian statistician who wrote the article, nor who did the actual study.
2. The professor who did the study has a great interest in social justice issues and obviously is trying to make a case that Bush's economic policies have failed. He is appealing to his pro-life friends to be against Bush.
3. The person who is quoting this study, Joshua Holland, is not a conservative, pro-life person, but a smoking, wine-drinking, foul-mouthed lefty activist from liberal University of California.
4. You have tried to pass off this article as something other than what it is. I started looking into this expecting to find very different backgrounds of the people based upon what you have said. Instead, I found that you misled me.
I think what might better explain the rise in abortion is the decrease in violence against abortionists and abortion clinics along with laws that have created special buffer zones around abortion clinics. During the 1990's, several abortionists were killed and women going to abortion clinics had to face people who were urging them not to abort, but to choose adoption instead. During Clinton's administration, buffer zones were created and prosecution against violent anti-abortionists was stepped up. After Bush took office, an anti-abortionist murderer, Paul Hill, was executed here in Florida. I would think that steps such as this has made women feel more comfortable seeking an abortion, and the buffer zones have made it less likely that they would be talked out of the abortion as they approached the abortion clinic. I don't have time right now to collect the statistics and examine this relationship myself, but I do wonder why this is not considered in an article such as the one you shared. At least this would make more sense than the non-sensical idea that women during the last four years are feeling more economically depressed and that they seek relief from their hard economic times by killing their unborn children.
Note also that if economic times was truly the reason, why would they not put their children up for adoption? They are more likely to get some economic relief in real dollars and cents through adoption. Abortions cost them whereas adoptions do not, and there are many families who will pay thousands of dollars to adopt a child.
Jonathan, are you yourself able to do what you have asked of us? Are you able to examine this issue objectively? Is there anything that I have said that strikes any cord of truth with you? I look forward to hearing your response.
Peace be with you. David Miller.
---------- "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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