Monday, October 29, 2007

Statistician Refutes UN-Planned Parenthood Study on Illegal Abortions

I hope that pro-life news sites keep this story alive.

We have to let everyone know that the WHO study on abortions is bogus.

Dr. Keith Schumann, a Ph.D. statistician, reviewed the study and says the two groups use weak or non-existent data to support their conclusion that nations should legalize abortions.

“I cannot make any conclusion on the accuracy or precision of the numbers they report," Schumann told the Catholic News Agency. "There are numerous assumptions made in their methodology that can severely sway the final outcome."

"In other words, the numbers in the report contain such potentially large margins of error and so many problems with the underlying data that were cobbled together that few, if any, conclusions can accurately be made," the statistician explained.

Schumann said he was unable to recreate the results of the report based on the data the groups included in it.

He told CNA that the data is pulled form multiple sources and, in some cases, the researchers involved make guesses as to the statistics they need to back up their claims.

Schumann said the conclusions were "troubling" based on the faulty data and said some of the stats in the study were simply made up by researchers. He also said researchers adjusted figures when they didn't have enough data and claimed that some nations underreported risks from illegal abortions.

For countries where abortions are illegal, the total number of abortions was estimated, then inflated, and then all of these were considered unsafe, he said.

He also pointed to the study's claim that legal abortions in China and North Korea are "100% percent safe" even though they are forced in many situations.

“We can’t even get an accurate number of abortions locally, aside from what Planned Parenthood self-reports," Schumann concluded. "I don’t understand how we can then get accurate numbers from a worldwide perspective.”