NEW STUDY SHOWS LEGAL ABORTION INCREASES STD RATES BY UP TO 25%

Monday March 31, 2003

NEW STUDY SHOWS LEGAL ABORTION INCREASES STD RATES BY UP TO 25%

FAIRFAX, VA, March 31, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Two researchers at George Mason University have published a paper that shows how the legalization of abortion has impacted sexual behaviors, substantially increasing rates of sexually transmitted diseases. The study, "The Effect of Abortion Legalization on Sexual Behavior" published in The Journal of Legal Studies notes that since abortion was legalized, there has been a stunning increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

The authors, Jon Klick and Thomas Stratmann, note that "Legalizing abortion provided extra incentives to engage in risky sexual activity. Legalization led to a lowering of the cost of abortions and this has a qualitatively and quantitatively important effect on STD rates. Our regression results show that abortion legalization led to an increase of sexually transmitted diseases; this result is robust to a wide range of time periods and covariates and is constant across the sexes. The point estimates indicate that legalization caused an increase in the gonorrhea and syphilis rates potentially as large as 25 percent."

To read a pre-publication copy of this study, click here:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~jklick/std.pdf

(with files from the Traditional Values Coalition)

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/mar/03033102.html

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