It’s been called everything from one of the greatest achievements in the name of freedom to one of the largest instances of legalized slaughter since the Soviet purges. Whatever your personal feelings, there’s no denying the tremendous impact Roe vs Wade, and the subsequent legalization of abortion in the United States in 1973, has had on the generations of Americans born before and since the landmark trial.
However, relatively few among us have attempted to quantify the impact those from the other side of the equation, the generations of those who never saw the light of day, have had on our world. That is until economist Steven Levitt and Professor John Donohue of Yale Law School came out with a study intended to do just that in 2001. What they found would fascinate and anger people from all walks of life, whether they were fellow economists, politicians or your average every-day citizen.
That’s because Levitt’s study concluded that the legalization of abortion in the 1970′s was one of the most profound factors in the significant and unexpected crime rate drop seen across the country in the early 1990′s.
