The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime by John J. Donohue, Steven D. Levitt :: SSRN
Has the full text of a paper (Donohue, John J. and Levitt, Steven D., "The Impact of Legalized Abortion on Crime" (2000). Quarterly Journal of Economics) that is very interesting.
Basically, it argues that the legalization of abortion caused about half of the decline in the crime rate that we have seen in the US over the last decade plus. They do a decent job of arguing it, I believe, and make a pretty convincing case.
If anyone disagrees with their conclusions after reading the article I'd be interested in seeing your objections. When I googled for some dissenting views I saw Sailer's position, which I thought seemed unsupported by the evidence, and a bunch of pro-life groups dodging the issue, so I'd be curious as to what else is out there.
A) Should we let practical considerations (like this) influence moral decisions (like abortion)?
B) How close is this to eugenics?
I realize that its the result of many individual mothers making decisions for their own personal reasons, so its not at all like my own states Racial Integrity Act or the Nazi T-4 program or anything like that, but it does seem somewhat similar.
Chris
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