Choice isn't an easy one

A memorial service Wednesday at Laurel Hill Cemetery in East Falls, where the so-called Gosnell babies are buried, underscores the importance of a new study showing the national abortion rate has declined.

About 40 people prayed over the graves of 47 cremated fetuses discovered in the 2010 raid of an abortion clinic operated by Kermit Gosnell, who is serving a life sentence for murder in three of the deaths.

Gosnell's 2013 conviction was hailed by proponents and opponents of abortion rights. Seeing the butcher shop he called a clinic closed was a blessing. There is room for similar agreement that fewer abortions are a welcome development.

An Associated Press survey of data from state health departments across the country showed a decrease in abortions of about 12 percent since 2010. There's no single reason for the drop. Abortion rights opponents credit laws making it more difficult to get an abortion. Proponents say it's due to more accessible contraceptives and fewer unintended pregnancies.

The teenage birth rate has dropped 10 percent since 2013, an apparent result of a drop in teenage pregnancies. But with teenagers accounting for only 18 percent of abortions, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, that is only one factor in the overall decline.

A 10 percent drop in abortions in Pennsylvania from 2012 to 2013 may in part be due to the 2012 law spawned by the Gosnell case holding abortion clinics to the same standards as ambulatory surgical facilities. Unable to afford costly renovations, a number of clinics closed, making it harder for women to find a safe, convenient facility. A similar law in Texas was recently upheld by a federal court.

But abortions have declined across the country, including in states without stringent guidelines for clinics. In fact, a logical assumption might be that the most important factor in reducing abortions is reducing unintended pregnancies.

In that regard, access to contraception is very important. In terms of teen pregnancies, effective sex education classes should be required. Pennsylvania could see an even greater decline in its abortion rate were it to do more than offer HIV education classes that are required to stress abstinence.

Project U-Turn, an initiative to lower Philadelphia's dropout rate, found nearly 3,000 teenage girls became mothers in the 2011-12 school year. Put those births in the context of the 25 percent of teen pregnancies the Guttmacher Institute says end in abortion.

Reaching teenagers is just one way to reduce the abortion rate, but it is an important one. Meanwhile, as people remember the Gosnell case, their memories should help them consider what can happen when women who choose abortion submit to such savagery because they have no safe, accessible, affordable option.