The Claim That Abortion Reduces Crime Is Rooted In Racism, According To Pro-Life Researcher

Yesterday, we looked at an argument the Left often makes about climate change, that man-made climate change causes severe weather events like hurricanes and the like. However, we found that nothing could be further from the truth and there is no actual link between climate change itself and extreme weather. Similarly, the Left makes the argument that abortion reduces crime rates, but that one is not only wrong (and we will see why that is in a moment), but is rooted in racism.
 
Dr. Brian Clowes is a pro-life researcher working for Human Life International and recently had an interview with LifeSiteNews discussing a research paper by economists John Donohue III and Steven Levitt titled: “The impact of legalized abortion on crime over the last two decades,” which is a paper that expands upon a study they published back in 2001 that essentially claimed the same things – that abortion reduces crime rates.
 
What the economists found is that crime rates dropped after 1973, which is something Clowes acknowledges in the interview. However, he asserts that the reason for this is “not because fewer people were born but because fewer people in the 25-40 age bracket were committing a crime. This was partly due, [Clowes] said, to improved police techniques and a reduction in the widespread use of crack cocaine.”
 
So there are two things to note here. First, older people were committing less crimes at least in part due to improved police techniques, improvements in technology and an overall reduction in the use of hardcore drugs such as cocaine, which really exploded in the 1980s. This much makes sense, as improving police techniques often leads to good results that impact crime rates in a good way.
 
The second thing to note is the actual age bracket used here: 25-40. Statistician David Murray, whom Clowes cites, confirmed that the majority of crimes committed in the U.S. are by males between the ages of 17 and 25. Both Clowes and Murray assert that if abortion truly did reduce crime rates, the number would have dropped in that age range first, not in older ranges, which is what the economists found.
 
Back in 2001, when the report was first released by the economists, Murray told Fox News that homicide rates did drop among that age group, but aggravated assault among that age group increased. While I don’t exactly have the data, it stands to reason that at least part of the reason for this is an improvement in the medical field to treat wounds that otherwise would’ve been fatal. And again, police techniques can also be attributed, at least to some extent. The point is that while one type of crime was reduced, a different type, which can often lead to the first type, increased significantly, rendering the economists’ findings irrelevant at best.
 
But there is one other major component that we must take into account when talking about this issue whatsoever. And that component is the simple fact that while the economists recorded a drop in crime rates int the U.S. since Roe v. Wade passed (which is really more correlation than causation, as far as we can see), similar data was not replicated outside the U.S.
 
What do I mean? Well, the United Kingdom legalized abortion in 1968. But according to LifeSiteNews, “Eighteen years later, crime was increasing across the country, precisely when Donohue and Levitt’s analysis would have predicted a decline.” The same could be said of Russia, which, despite the fact they have some of the highest abortion rates in the world (37.4 per 1000 women aged 15-44 as of 2010) with a peak of 5.5 million abortions performed in 1965, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, violent crimes in the country skyrocketed.
 
So not only do abortions not seem to cause a decrease in crimes, other countries in the world with far higher abortion rates and legalized abortion for longer periods found themselves with HIGHER crime rates than before. I won’t go as far as to say that abortions cause crime (though abortions help rapists get rid of the “evidence” of their misdeeds), but abortion seems to not have anything to do with decreased crime rates. Countries that have had legal abortion for longer periods of time than the U.S. and have higher rates of abortion don’t seem to see any drop in crimes at all.
 
And now, let’s get to the part about how that study is rooted in racism, shall we?
 
Clowes noted that murder rates among African Americans skyrocketed by more than 500% from 1984 to 1993 despite the fact that African American women have abortions three times more often than white women do. Yet another example of the rates absolutely going the opposite way that the pro-abortion economists claimed they would go.
 
Clowes then went on to assert that both studies reflect a “eugenics mentality”. Clowes even went as far as to say that “the racism of eugenics and Planned Parenthood advocate Margaret Sanger is revealed in the assumptions found in Donohue and Levitt’s study,” according to LifeSiteNews.
 
“The unstated assertion behind all of this is that black people supposedly commit more crime than white people,” Clowes said. And given not only the rates at which a black woman is more likely to get an abortion than a white woman, but also the amount of times PP clinics emphasize going to minority neighborhoods and also target minority women, as well as the fact that Margaret Sanger considered black people to be “weeds”, you can logically observe that the study that makes the claim that abortion reduces crime rates are heavily rooted in racism.
 
The claim alone, considering the rates at which minorities will be more likely to get abortions, sounds rooted in racism. Another way to write that claim would be: “Abortion of minorities leads to reduced crime rates!” So while the economists don’t explicitly talk about minorities, the claims they make (which are wrong anyway) suggest that it’s good that minorities are having so many abortions because they create less criminals.
 
Now doesn’t that sound wrong to your ears? Well, it should, given just how incredibly wrong these two economists (and by extension, all who use their research) are when it comes to their positions. Abortion does not reduce crime. Neither do we see that actually happen in the U.S. nor do we see that happen outside the U.S. in countries like the U.K. and Russia, which actually show an increase in crime. But beyond that, it is racist to claim that abortion reduces crime because the vast majority of people who get abortions are minorities.
 
So the next time someone cites these economists and claims abortion reduces crime, remind them that minorities get abortions more often than white people, so that is the same thing as to say that minorities cause more crimes and aborting them reduces those crime rates. In other words, you can (rather credibly) call them racist and have some data to back up that claim that often gets thrown around so much.
 
Romans 16:18
“For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naïve.”
 
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