Abortion Stat Goes Viral – Gives New Meaning to ‘My Body, My Choice’

“95%+ are cases of normal healthy babys.”

Florida’s annual abortion statistics went viral on Tuesday, giving new meaning to the abortion-rights slogan “My body, my choice.”

The self-reported data, collected by the state, show that more than 95 percent of the abortions performed in Florida last year were for reasons other than the health of the woman or the fetus. Of the 70,000 procedures, more than three-quarters were classified as “elective,” meaning the woman did not provide a reason, and another 20 percent were said to be for “social or economic reasons.”

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Meanwhile, fewer than 1.5 percent of the abortions were attributed to a threat to the woman’s physical health, fewer than 2 percent to psychological health problems and 0.67 percent to a fetal abnormality. Fewer than 0.3 percent of cases cited a threat to the woman’s life.

The numbers of women who said they were pregnant from rape or incest were just 0.14 and 0.01 percent, respectively.

Get triggered

Conservatives, including Parkland survivor and Ben Shapiro groupie Kyle Kashuv, have been sharing the Florida stats on Twitter as proof that abortion isn’t primarily an issue of women’s health.

Every Abortion in Florida and its reason.

95%+ are cases of normal healthy babys.

All the extremely tragic cases the Left cites:
• 0.0001% incestuous
• 0.001% the woman was raped
• 0.03% woman’s life endangered by pregnancy
• 0.01% serious fetal abnormality https://t.co/D4wNIHmNkZ

— Kyle Kashuv (@KyleKashuv) May 21, 2019

Get woke

With the Supreme Court thought to have a firm “pro-life” majority for the first time in decades, the political and culture wars over abortion have flared up again. Republican states have moved to crack down on the procedure, and “pro-choice” activists like Alyssa Milano have responded with renewed activism, much of it focused on the supposed needs of rape and incest victims.

However, as the Florida statistics prove, such cases are extremely rare. The stakes are better encapsulated by the abortion-rights slogan: “My body, my choice” – with an emphasis on “choice.”

According to a 2005 study by the Guttmacher Institute, which is affiliated with Planned Parenthood, the picture is similar on a national level. Just 4 percent of women report getting abortions because of a physical health problem, 3 percent because of potential fetal health problems and fewer than 0.5 percent because of rape.

The most common reasons women cited for obtaining an abortion were not being ready for a child or another child, or being unable to afford one.

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Pluralist

Andrew Tobin is Pluralist’s Editor-in-chief.

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