Abortion and Crime

Sang sent me an interesting article about the abortion issue. I confess I didn't read the entire sixty-seven pages, but the gist of it is that the crime rate fell roughly eighteen years after the legalization of abortion. It states, "Legalized abortion appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime," which blatantly contradicts what the commentary on NPR had said. (Interestingly, it's the "sharpest drop in murder rates since the end of Prohibition in 1933." So what is that saying? Give the people booze and free sex and they're content enough to not kill?) Basically, fewer young males in the highest-crime areas leads to fewer crimes. While this makes perfect sense, something about this theory rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it's the implications? That women in high-crime areas should be discouraged from having kids? There's a leap there to sterilizing women on welfare that makes me too uncomfortable. It's too Gattaca for me. I think I'd better read the entire report.