John Tierney has a slapdash column on it. Steve Sailer’s site takes apart the theory that abortion is responsible for half the drop in crime. (Actually, he took it apart when Steven Levitt first floated it, but Levitt has apparently not adjusted his argument since then.)

Sailer has an article coming out in The American Conservative on the theory. Some highlights:

“Levitt’s idea outrages Pro-Lifers, who complain that King Herod used similar logic in ordering the slaughter of thousands of babies to try to eliminate the threat posed by the infant Jesus. That doesn’t mean it’s false. As a social scientist, Levitt has an obligation to follow the data wherever they may lead him. But that doesn’t mean it’s true, either. . . .

“[T]he acid test of Levitt’s theory is this: Did the first New, Improved Generation culled by legalized abortion actually grow up to be more lawful teenagers than the last generation born before legalization? Hardly. Instead, the first cohort to survive legalized abortion went on the worst youth murder spree in American history. . . .

“[Levitt] argues that crime fell first in the five states that legalized abortion back in 1970. Okay … but isn’t it at least as interesting that crime had previously gone up first in those early legalizing states? And hardly surprising it then burned out there first?”