Nicholas Kristof Pushing Liberal Dogma instead of Facts

Propagandist Nicholas Kristof wrote a column in the Sunday New York Times discussing the "attack" on women in Texas who are seeking an abortion. Specifically, Kristof is lamenting the new law which requires pregnant women to first undergo an ultrasound procedure and a discussion of the potential side effects of abortion before undergoing the procedure. Kristof characterizes this as the "rape" of these women. Kristof even has an answer to the barbaric law passed by the Texas legislature.

If Texas legislators wanted to reduce abortions, the obvious approach would be to reduce unwanted pregnancies. The small proportion of women and girls who aren’t using contraceptives account for half of all abortions in America, according to Guttmacher. Yet Texas has some of the weakest sex-education programs in the nation, and last year it cut spending for family planning by 66 percent.

So that's the answer to reduce abortions! The government has to step in with better sex education programs (and, I assume, also pay for contraceptives.) Let's look and see if that really works.

There is no more liberal area in the country than New York City. Sex education is taught all throughout the school years and at all ages. Indeed, I expect that we may soon see the kindergarten sex education plan from Mayor Bloomberg. Okay, so not in kindergarten, but sex ed starts in New York City schools in second grade. According to Kristof's thesis and liberal orthodoxy, the abortion rate in New York City should be quite low. In actual fact, in 2009, according to the New York City Health Department, 41% of all pregnancies in the city ended with abortion. For some groups the rate was higher. Non-Hispanic Blacks ended 59.8% of all pregnancies with abortion.

And what was the rate in Texas? For the same year, 2009, about 16% of all pregnancies in Texas ended with abortion. That's right, the percentage of abortions in full sex-educated New York is 25 points higher than in "poorly" educated Texas.

So, without a doubt, Kristof is wrong. Indeed, Kristof is so far from being right that he could not see it without using a telescope. but there he is pushing the liberal line in the New York Times. Folks who do not know the actual facts read his nonsense and assume that it must be correct since the Times has published it.

I do not know if the Texas law is a good thing or a bad one. I have not even read the statute. I do know, however, that arguing the merits of a statute on the basis of phony and misleading facts serves no valid purpose. Kristof buys into the liberal dogma regarding abortion and never bothers to consider the actual facts.