“Every child a wanted child” is a common refrain among those who support abortion. If abortion is legal, they claim, more children will then be ‘wanted’ which in turn will lower the rate of child abuse. If they are correct, then it would follow that since the legalization of abortion, rates of abuse should have dropped.
It hasn’t exactly turned out that way as the chart below shows. The tragedy of child abuse has always been with us, but you can see a ramp up of child abuse that coincides quite closely with the ramp up of abortion. Although there are certainly other factors that figure into this increase of abuse such as increasing rates of cohabitation – spurred on by the same sexual revolution that gave us legalized abortion – I think we are safe in saying that the legalization of abortion has done nothing to increase respect for the lives of babies – before or after their birth.
Abortion rate chart from Guttmacher Institute, research arm of Planned Parenthood.