Latest RW tool from the anti-choice brigade [View all]

[TrogL]

http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2012/05/08/chilean-study-proves-that-outlawing-abortion-does-not-lead-to-coat-hanger-deaths/

I don't normally link to a right-wing site, but I can't find this linked anyplace else.

Here's their argument, near as I can make out.

Left wingers (they've coined a new term "proglodytes&quot say that banning abortions will cause an increase in "coat-hanger" abortions and pregnancy-related mortality. We've found a study that says otherwise. However, the proglodytes will discount the study because the doctor involved has the same last name as the Koch brothers.

Now go read the study. It's based upon hospital admissions. Chile has a government-run health-care plan similar to England's. The problem, as I see it, is how that health care may deal with admissions having to do with illegal activity. Here's Wikipedia's take...(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abortion_in_Chile)

Experts attribute the decline in hospitalizations due to abortion during this period to the increased use of sterilization and antibiotics by illegal abortion providers, the increased availability of the abortifacient drug misoprostol, and the increased use of contraception.[9]

In the period 2000 to 2004, abortion was the third leading cause of maternal mortality in the country, accounting for 12% of all maternal deaths.[11] While there are no accurate statistics, it is estimated that between 2000 and 2002 there were between 132,000 and 160,000 abortions in the country.[12]

A 1997 study found that the majority of eighty women prosecuted in Santiago for having an abortion were young, single mothers, and that many were domestic workers who had moved to the city from rural areas. It also found most of the women were reported to authorities by the hospital at which they sought treatment for their complications, and had no legal representation, or were defended by inexperienced law students.[13]

In other words, the "coat-hanger" guys are getting better at it, they're now using drugs instead of invasive procedures but even so, there were still plenty of deaths, directly contradicting the "evidence" the RWers are giving. Also, the hospitals are turning people over to the authorities, likely prevent most patients from approaching them at all. Hence, the study is flawed since it is based solely upon hospital admissions.