In all my years of pro-life work, one of the most common canards I have heard is “No matter where you stand on legalized abortion, we can all agree that we should increase access to contraception in order to lower the abortion rate.” Pro-abortion advocates trying to appear reconciliatory will promote this idea, and sadly, many pro-life advocates will agree with it. But it is simply nonsense, and common sense should tell anyone that. If you encourage people who don’t want to have kids to have sex, then what happens when their “protection” doesn’t work or is not immediately available? It doesn’t take an Einstein or Plato to know: abortion.

And now a study confirms this:

Study Authors Puzzled Why Abortions Rise with Contraceptive Use ^[1]

The results of a new study ^[2] just published in the journal Contraception on contraception use and abortion rates in Spain have researchers puzzled.

The study, conducted over ten years, was meant to “acquire information about the use of contraceptive methods in order to reduce the number of elective abortions.” From 1997-2007, researchers recorded the various contraceptive methods being used by a representative group of Spanish women, as well as their abortion rates.

What they discovered has them completely baffled—but is exactly what we at the Pro-Life Action League might have predicted: as contraception use increased, so did the abortion rate.

Researchers Puzzled by Results

In fact, while contraceptive use among these women went up significantly over that period—from 49.1% to 79.9%—the abortion rate rose even more dramatically—from 5.52 to 11.49 per 1000 women.

In other words, a 63% increase in contraception use was accompanied by a 108% increase in abortions.

The Spanish researchers are completely at a loss to explain these results, concluding that “The factors responsible for the increased rate of elective abortion need further investigation.”

Their puzzlement is understandable: they set out with the assumption that contraception can be used to reduce abortion, hoping to fine-tune that basic approach. Instead, they found abortions only increased with more contraception.

More Contraception Means More Abortion—But Why?

The Spanish research team may be at a loss to explain these results, but they make perfect sense to pro-life advocates who have been saying for years that contraception is not the answer to abortion. (In fact, the Pro-Life Action League explored this topic at a 2006 conference entitled “Contraception Is Not the Answer” ^[3].)

The impact that contraceptive use has on people’s sexual behavior is profound. Contraception does not merely mitigate the effects of people’s risky sexual behavior—it radically alters their sexual behavior.

Seemingly free of the most significant and concerning consequence of sex—pregnancy—people behave differently, just as one would expect. They’re more willing to take sexual risks—more sexual partners, more casual sex, more “cheating” etc.—and the end result is more unplanned pregnancy, not less; more abortion, not less.

Continue reading ^[1]…

As Mark Shea would say, “sin makes you stupid” and only sin could make someone stupid enough to think that more contraception would lead to less abortions. But for over forty years our culture has wanted sex without consequences, and no amount of common sense will prevent us from continuing to push for it.

Here is the one method of contraception that is sure to NOT lead to more abortions: