Letter to the Editor - Feb. 22, 2013 » Viewpoints

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February 22, 2013

Letter to the Editor - Feb. 22, 2013

Anonymous Weatherford Democrat The Weatherford Democrat Fri Feb 22, 2013, 12:20 AM CST

Using CDC’s numbers

Dear Editor,

Relying on unproven and unprovable estimates and assumptions in lieu of published, verifiable facts does nothing to buttress a contention. Just the opposite.

Unfortunately for Mr. Mason, the reported statistics from the Centers for Disease Control are somewhat at odds with his suppositions. In the United States there are 6 million births per annum with losses of 1,995,840; 60 percent of those losses are “medically induced” abortions. While the figures presented by the CDC may not be perfectly comprehensive or exact they are verifiable and reliable in a way that Mr. Mason’s estimates and assumptions are not.

Let us though, for the sake of intellectual exercise, review the estimates and assumptions Mr. Mason employs. Assuming, as he does, that there are 10 million pregnancies per annum in the United States and that, of these 10 million pregnancies, 1 million are terminated by “medically induced” abortion, we are left with a ‘medically induced’ abortion rate of 10 percent.

Assuming further, as Mr. Mason does, that of these 10 million pregnancies half, or 5 million, are terminated by spontaneous abortion, of the remaining 5 million viable pregnancies the 1 million “medically induced” abortions provides a rate of 20 percent.

There is no “misunderstanding” of Mr. Mason’s intent nor any confusion over the airy suppositions deployed to support his wrong characterization of the incidence and prevalence of abortion. Declaring the deaths of 1.2 million children per annum “a small number” (not, as latterly claimed, “a smaller number”) is not indicative of sound or rational judgment.

Sincerely,

William Picou, Weatherford

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