A professor at the Catholic University of America slammed a widely reported study released on the estimated number of pregnancies that result from rape in states with abortion bans.
The study, published as a letter by JAMA Internal Medicine on Wednesday, estimated the number of conceptions from rape in states with total abortion bans. It concluded that an estimated 64,565 rape-related pregnancies have been reported since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision overturned Roe v. Wade.
Of these 64,565 pregnancies presumed to be associated with rape, 91% were reported in states without rape exceptions to abortion bans, with Texas estimated to have 26,313 (45%) of these pregnancies. The sampling came from 14 states that have “implemented total abortion bans following the Dobbs decision,” the study noted.
But Michael New, an associate professor of social research at the Catholic University of America, lambasted the study as supremely unreliable.
“This is one of the most biased and flawed pieces of research that I have seen in my years as a social scientist,” New tweeted Thursday. “The fact that it was published in a peer reviewed journal gives it respectability and credibility that it simply does not deserve.”
New cited several studies to back his assertion. The JAMA study, he noted, calculated the pregnancies using a rate of conception-via-rape of 12.5%. This number is vastly larger than most studies, which New said put the conception rate closer to 5%.
The professor further pointed out that the JAMA study calculated the number of rapes based on data from the Center for Disease Control, which he said is four times higher than the number reported in the Department of Justice’s National Crime Victim Survey and 10 times higher than the number reported to law enforcement. It is, however, worth noting that rape is a notoriously underreported crime.
Still, New calculated that if the JAMA study was accurate and half of the women said to have conceived a child through rape decided to get an abortion, then they would account for 10% of all abortions. This number, he remarked, contradicts data from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which found only 1% of abortions are reported to be the result of rape.
Another key detail hardly mentioned by the media, New explained, was the background of two of the authors of the JAMA study: Samuel Dickman is the medical director of Planned Parenthood of Montana, and Kari White works for Resound Research for Reproductive Health.
In Dickman’s disclosure of conflicts of interest in the study, he admitted being “a plaintiff in several lawsuits challenging abortion restrictions in Montana.”
White disclosed that she had received “personal fees from the Society of Family Planning Stipend as well as grants from the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, Collaborative for Gender and Reproductive Equity, and Jacob and Terese Hershey Foundation” while the study was being conducted.
“Academic journals should stick to publishing rigorous, peer reviewed research,” New commented. “They should not serve as mouthpieces for pro-abortion activists.”