The great communicator got this one right: "I've noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born."  Leave it to President Reagan to put things in perspective.

Someone took the time to tell us how many babies were born because of the Texas law.  Well, it goes like this:

Using data from other states and from Texas in years prior to the new law, they established a version of what birth trends in Texas would have probably looked like without the law and compared that with the actual number of births reported.

They found that from April to December 2022, the first months that would have reflected the effects of the policy change, there were about 297,000 total births: about 3% more than the 287,000 births that would have been expected without the law.

"Texas is really unique in that it is one of the states that had one of the higher abortion rates -- and, because of the population size, a relatively large number of abortions," said Suzanne Bell, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the research. "At first blush, seeing the number was higher than I might have anticipated or hoped it might be."

But the 3% increase is relatively in line with what other research predicted might happen, she said.

A 3% increase.  Wonder what those babies think of that?  They are too young to answer the question today, but let's ask them in 15 years.  My guess is that most will say thanks for getting a chance to live rather than to have someone decide to put them among the 60 million who never got the chance.

It's simple for me.  I am glad that Professor Bell's mother did not have an abortion.  I'm glad she had a chance at getting an education, becoming an educator, and writing this research project.

In the spirit of Reagan's quote, I guess people who get to live get to have more choices, don't they?

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Image: Pixabay.