Abortion and Crime

Abortion has always been a hot button topic. From those who think that forbidding life to come into the world is in all cases wrong to those who think that abortion is right in some circumstances, one might become confused about their own personal stance on the topic, as both sides hold reasonable arguments. Austin Community College student, Caitlin Huber, very well describes some scenarios in which abortion might be considered right or wrong in her blog post "Yet Another Controversy".

The legalization of abortion has had many positive economic effects. The most dramatic effect of legalized abortion, as suggested by economist Steven Levitt, was its impact on crime. In December of 1989, crime was almost at its peak in the United States. In the fifteen years prior, violent crime had risen 80 percent. In the early 1990's, due to legalized abortion, crime rate began falling quite unexpectedly, despite the fact that many experts had predicted its certain rise in the next decade. Just as the first group of children born after Roe v. Wade were entering their late teen years, the years during which it is shown young men enter their criminal prime, the rate of crime began to fall. This direct correlation between abortion and crime rates can be seen when looking at crime data of the 5 states where abortion was made legal before the Supreme Court extended abortion rights to the rest of the country. These 5 states began to see crime fall earlier than the other 46.

The fact is, women who are caught in situations of rape or just "accidental" situations, need to have the option of abortion; ergo, I agree with Caitlin and think that it should be legal for women to choose. As she said in her post, doing so would prevent an everyday reminder of an atrocious act, and prevent children from coming into this world in unprepared households and poverty where their usually young mothers are neither emotionally nor financially capable of raising them.