Re the graph in Reply #17, note its title references clinician-provided abortions. It does not count self-administered medication-induced terminations.

RU-486 was approved by the US FDA in 2000. In 2021 the FDA approved the use of mailed prescriptions. This past June, SCOTUS overturned a Louisiana injunction against these drugs as controlled substances. (Yes, our vaunted "conservative" SCOTUS.) In early 2023 post-Dobbs, DOJ had already ruled that the drugs could be legally delivered by USPS anywhere in the US regardless of local anti-abortion restrictions. Medication abortions now are the majority in the US (@ 54% in 2020, certainly higher now).

Thus given the above, I'd guess that the uptick during COVID was due to an increase in abortions after the medication limit of 70 days gestation. Long story short, if we recognize that an accurate picture in 2024 must include the full data on medication abortions, then we have to realize that the old calculus about who and why, and how to address it, completely changes.

What does this have to do with the subject line of this thread? It's that proponents of infanticide have succeeded in making it an increasingly hidden act. Women are able to hide it, and thereby politicians are able to hide their true stances on it. Everything is about subterfuge and appearances, subject to the realpolitik needs of the moment.

This follows from the entire (((j-m))) campaign toward "personal freedom", "respect for privacy", and so on. Translation: Do as thou wilt. Meanwhile, the public face of Catholicism is compelled to be self-effacing, except when it gets trotted out instrumentally as a human interest story.

It is perfectly possible that abortions went up because of Covid lockdowns. There was an increase in mental health issues and ѕυιcιdє.  Abortion would fit that pattern. Perhaps overturning Roe prevented the increase in abortions from being as big as it would be otherwise.