This post by Patricia Maloney was originally posted at Run With Life<\/a>\u00a0and we have been given permission to reproduce it here.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Frankly, this is tiring: Joyce Arthur working reality into a fictional story on abortion in Canada. Does she ever give it a rest? Apparently not.<\/p>\n I’ve already debunked her make-believe world here<\/a> when I wrote on January 12, 2012 about 2009 Canadian abortion statistics, and here<\/a> when I wrote on November 19, 2012 about 2010 Canadian abortion statistics.<\/p>\n So here we go again–now I’ll do it for 2012 abortion statistics.<\/p>\n 1) Arthur says<\/a>:<\/p>\n “Since 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada threw out our abortion law as unconstitutional, the sky has not fallen, but our abortion rates have \u2013 we\u2019ve witnessed a continuing decline since 2000<\/strong> and now have a relatively low abortion rate compared to many other developed countries \u2013 about 14 abortions per 1000 women<\/strong> of childbearing age per year.” (emphasis added)<\/p>\n Arthur points to CIHI as proof that Canada’s abortions statistics have been declining since 2000. But how does she know this? She doesn’t. Because as CIHI themselves tell us their numbers are underestimated<\/a>:<\/p>\n “…while this is probably an underestimate of induced abortions done in the country, it is currently the best way to produce pan-Canadian comparable data.”<\/p>\n That’s because CIHI’s numbers don’t<\/em> record abortions done in private physician’s offices; don’t<\/em> record medical abortions; and don’t<\/em> record all clinic abortions, because many clinics choose not to report that information, and nobody makes them do it.<\/p>\n Arthur then says there are 14 abortions per 1000, but neglects to tell you, that that number is from Statistics Canada data from 2005<\/a>–nine years ago. We have no idea right now how many abortions are committed per 1000 abortions, because our data is inaccurate<\/em>. And even if it was accurate, you can’t use nine year old<\/em> data to talk about today’s<\/em> trends.<\/p>\n (In fact, discerning minds must question why CIHI reports at all–if their numbers are so woefully inaccurate? But that’s a question for another day.)<\/p>\n 2) Arthur says<\/p>\n “90 per cent of abortions occur during the first trimester, and less than half a percent after 20 weeks<\/strong>.” (emphasis added)<\/p>\n For 2012, CIHI reported a total of 83,708 clinic and hospital abortions (and as stated above this is under reported). Of these abortions, a full 62,178* have “unknown” gestational age.<\/p>\n That means all 62,178*, or most of them, or some of them, or none of them, could be late term abortions. We. Do. Not. Know. That’s what “unknown” means. And we don\u2019t know these gestational ages because most abortion providers don’t<\/em> report them.<\/p>\n So concluding late-term abortions are “less than half a percent” is impossible.<\/p>\n 3) Arthur says:<\/p>\n “The latter [after 20 weeks] are all for compelling reasons, such as fetal abnormalities incompatible with life or a serious threat to the woman\u2019s health or life.”<\/p>\n How does Arthur know these late-term abortions are for compelling reasons? Because nobody else in Canada knows this. Arthur can’t know–since reasons are not reported.<\/p>\n