The Susan B. Anthony List has created this web video that's less than two minutes long and ought to be seen by everyone voting or running for office this year. Share it with your teenagers, too. See link below.
http://bit.ly/KntoXf
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
About Time: an Alternative to Guttmacher Institute
I note with great pleasure the rollout of a web site for the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Check it out here. The Lozier Institute is the education and research arm of the Susan B. Anthony List (web site here), which promotes the election of pro-life women and men to Congress. The Lozier Institute looks to me like a breakthrough in policy research.
For years, the Guttmacher Institute has been relied upon by policymakers at all levels for statistical information about abortion and reproductive health care (which are two different things - repeat after me: abortion is not health care). Formerly an arm of Planned Parenthood, the organizations allegedly split in the late 1970s. However formal the split may be in a legal and financial sense, Guttmacher is hand-in-glove with PP on policy.
Guttmacher's statistics and findings are given entirely too much credence at the State House, as I've seen through the years. I have to remind lawmakers from time to time that any "statistics" Guttmacher reports about New Hampshire are based on voluntarily-reported information from abortion providers, since the state of NH does not collect abortion statistics. Most of the NH statistical information reported to Guttmacher about abortions comes from PPNNE. PPNNE then sends its lobbyist to Concord to fight efforts to enact a bill to require the state to collect statistics. PP-reported figures go to Guttmacher, which bases policy research on those numbers, and then the research is used by PP to advance its mission. Fuzzy math, cozy relationship.
I am looking forward to learning what the Lozier Institute is able to do to provide a clearer picture of how abortion is affecting us as individuals and as a community. It's encouraging to know that the parent organization, SBA List, has been extremely supportive of efforts in NH and elsewhere to require public health authorities to gather accurate information. How many abortions in NH? How old are the mothers? At what gestational age are pregnancies terminated? What about morbidity and mortality for the mothers, both short- and long-term? Who's doing these procedures? Where?
I recommend supporting the Lozier Institute's research. It will take time, but I hope legislators and public health officials will soon see that Guttmacher isn't the only kid on the block.
For years, the Guttmacher Institute has been relied upon by policymakers at all levels for statistical information about abortion and reproductive health care (which are two different things - repeat after me: abortion is not health care). Formerly an arm of Planned Parenthood, the organizations allegedly split in the late 1970s. However formal the split may be in a legal and financial sense, Guttmacher is hand-in-glove with PP on policy.
Guttmacher's statistics and findings are given entirely too much credence at the State House, as I've seen through the years. I have to remind lawmakers from time to time that any "statistics" Guttmacher reports about New Hampshire are based on voluntarily-reported information from abortion providers, since the state of NH does not collect abortion statistics. Most of the NH statistical information reported to Guttmacher about abortions comes from PPNNE. PPNNE then sends its lobbyist to Concord to fight efforts to enact a bill to require the state to collect statistics. PP-reported figures go to Guttmacher, which bases policy research on those numbers, and then the research is used by PP to advance its mission. Fuzzy math, cozy relationship.
I am looking forward to learning what the Lozier Institute is able to do to provide a clearer picture of how abortion is affecting us as individuals and as a community. It's encouraging to know that the parent organization, SBA List, has been extremely supportive of efforts in NH and elsewhere to require public health authorities to gather accurate information. How many abortions in NH? How old are the mothers? At what gestational age are pregnancies terminated? What about morbidity and mortality for the mothers, both short- and long-term? Who's doing these procedures? Where?
I recommend supporting the Lozier Institute's research. It will take time, but I hope legislators and public health officials will soon see that Guttmacher isn't the only kid on the block.
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