Ron Paul For President in 2008

[N-Syte]

@Kain

If you came across a kid who was "worked through the system", would you be able to tell them they would be better off had they never existed?

As far as Freakonomics is concerned, the abortion/crime correlation is the most disputed section of the book. Levitt still stands by his work, but does acknowledge some deficiencies. He should have counted arrests on a per capita basis rather than total arrests for example.

How does he know if the increased number of conceptions did not result from changing social behaviors brought on by greater abortion access?
The illiegitmacy rate skyrocketed since abortion was legalized. Why did those births not lead to increased crime?
Crime among 12-17 year olds peaked in 93-94, well after abortion was legalized. Why the spike? An so on and so on. His research on the topic was done rather quickly, but it made him famous. I'm sure he will do what he can to defend his hypothesis.

You can latch on to Freakonomics to justify legalized abortion, but its hardly air tight. Even some pro-lifers latch on to it to demonstrate how principled they are in opposing abortion. See! Despite the social benefits I still think it is wrong!

But even if you do take the theory at face value, it can lead to some problematic conclusions. If abortions cut crime, and abortions are more likely among the socially liberal, are the socially liberal at higher risk to commit crimes?

Since offspring tend to adopt the worldview of their parents, should social conservatives just be silent on the issue? Heck, had those children been born they would likely share the politics of their parents and be active voters today!