The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute recently released abortion estimates for the first six months of 2023. Using these numbers, media outlets quickly announced that pro-life laws after the demise of Roe have been ineffective. Ironically, abortion proponents lament restricted access to abortion while claiming pro-life laws don’t work. 

However, according to Dr. Michael J. New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, these numbers “reflect a great deal of potential variance.”  

[T]hese new abortion estimates are based on samples of abortion facilities, not comprehensive surveys. … For Georgia, their upper abortion estimate is over 80 percent higher than their low estimate. For Florida, their upper estimate is more than 11,000 abortions higher than their low estimate. This much variation raises serious questions about the accuracy of their estimates. 

According to Dr. New, “plenty of reliable data collected since the Dobbs decision show that thousands of lives have been saved by strong state-level pro-life laws.”  

So, as always, we should stay the course and not be discouraged by the latest alarm-seeking headline.