WASHINGTON (May 3, 2006)—Deirdre A. McQuade, an official of the United
States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) criticized the latest report
by the Guttmacher Institute, “Abortion in Women’s Lives.”
“The report tries to maintain an impossible balancing act: claiming the
goal of reducing abortions, while at the same time calling for more
aggressive promotion of abortion services,” said Ms. McQuade, Director of
Planning and Information at the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities. “But
how could more unregulated abortion do anything but increase abortion
rates?”
“The authors also claim that widespread access to contraception clearly
leads to lower abortion rates,” Ms. McQuade noted. “Yet Guttmacher’s own
data show there is no correlation between the two. States ranking highest
for access to contraceptive services, including California and New York,
also rank highest in abortion rates. Others that Guttmacher considers weak
in contraceptive services, such as Kansas and the Dakotas, have among the
lowest abortion rates in the country.”
“Those states have reduced their abortion rates, in part, by choosing not
to subsidize abortion, and ensuring informed consent for women and
parental involvement for minors seeking abortions – policies which the
Guttmacher report demands be rescinded,” she explained.
“It is time to question the assumptions of Planned Parenthood, and instead
devote our resources to helping women and couples so that abortion is not
seen as their best – or only – option,” Ms. McQuade said.