The deadly new stats on abortion bans

According to a major just-released report (PDF) from the Guttmacher Institute, increased use of contraception has helped decrease unintended pregnancy worldwide. Abortions, ergo, are down as well, from an estimated 45.5 million procedures in 1995 to 41.6 million in 2003. In Eastern Europe, where a decade ago abortion was commonly, and infamously, used to limit or space births, the abortion rate was so high it threw off the curve. Now, abortion in that region has dropped by a whopping 50 percent, thanks to the wider availability of actual birth control.

The estimated number of unsafe abortions actually "changed little" during the same period, says the study. In fact, the study found (again), abortion occurs at about the same rate in places where it's legal and in places where it's restricted.

Bans do nothing. Except kill women. Specifically: About 70,000 women die each year of complications from unsafe abortion, an estimate that -- should it sound familiar -- has hardly changed in 10 years.

Because of death -- wholly preventable death -- by unsafe abortion, an estimated quarter million children grow up without a mother. "Restrictive abortion laws are an unacceptable infringement of women's human rights and of medical ethics," says the study. "Eliminating unsafe abortion and providing access to safe abortion would reduce ill health, death and lost years of productivity among women, and avert the financial burden of treating related health complications. Achieving these goals would lead to enormous individual and societal benefits -- for women, their families and countries as a whole."