http://www.abortionno.org/Resources/fastfacts.html
who in turn cite their source as the well known The Alan Guttmacher Institute. (www.agi-usa.org):
"Women identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for 1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify themselves as "Born-again/Evangelical"
Notice anything unusual? Thats right, of the three major religious denominations in the United States, 2 of them account for a significantly higher number of abortions each year. Almost 10% more. So much for being more moral, or even enforcing their own doctrine. The theist who shoves the Bible in the atheists face preaching against abortion should first turn to their own congregation, where statistically more abortions are occuring.
All of this leads us to an interesting question: why might religious believers tend to get more abortions than non-believers? I think there are probably a few reasons for this. First, the majority of denominations in the United States support abstinence only education, which current affairs tend to indicate is not an effective method to prevent teen pregnancy and the spread of STDs. When churches refrain from teaching the youth anything about sex, there is a higher risk of young or unwanted pregnancies, and this is where the second reason comes in. For women who are religious and value the church community they are part of, there is a certain conduct expected of them. One major part of Christian doctrine is saving one's virginity until after marriage. If a high school girl gets pregnant, and wants to maintain her image and status within the church, her only real option is abortion. People have to maintain their priorities, and if it is someone's priority to remain a valued part of their church, they may feel compelled to get an abortion rather than face the dirty looks they would receive had they openly broken the convention about saving their virginity.
While these stats are not meant to demonize theists, I think they do help point out some of problems that religion can cause in a society. They also demonstrate an interesting clash of ideas among many Christians, who assert that virginity is to be saved until marriage, but also forbid any alternative, and protest against real sex education, you know, the one that talks about STDs and condoms. Not only that, but these figures show that those without religious affiliation tend to be more responsible when it comes to sexual activity. It is time for theists to own up to the things that they cause, and only then can they began to repair the damage that has been done.
