Jonah, in your discussion below with Josh Patashnik, he cites last week’s New York Times story indicating that stricter abortion laws don’t actually seem to reduce abortion rates. My wife pointed out a few weaknesses in the media coverage of that story (which was based on a study done by Planned Parenthood’s research arm). As per usual with media coverage of the contentious topic, they got basic facts wrong (for instance, nine out of ten women do not have abortions) and overstated the claims of the study. From a statistical standpoint, it’s worth mentioning that abortion data are unreliable even in developed countries — so it’s wise to be cautious about any claims using abortion data.