Alicorn comments on Politics Discussion Thread August 2012 - Less Wrong

0 Post author: OrphanWilde 01 August 2012 03:25PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (166)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Alicorn 02 August 2012 02:10:06AM 3 points [-]

That is a mechanism by which availability of birth control could theoretically increase abortion; do you have any empiricism handy?

Comment author: J_Taylor 03 August 2012 12:41:04AM *  2 points [-]

Absolutely none whatsoever.

Edit: Confound these Lesswrongers, they drive me to research.

Anyways, to make a brief attempt using data from here, it seems that I was either overestimating p(oops|pill) or underestimating p(oops|condom). Of course, the hypothetical pragmatic pro-lifer really should be advocating for Dreaded_Anomaly's suggested methods as opposed to free pills.

Still, I give substantially more credence to the statement:

This intervention would cause a decrease in abortion.

(Note: I was not giving much credence to begin with.)