1. Supreme Court strikes down Texas law requiring abortion doctors to have hospital privileges and clinics to meet hospital standards
2. Texas abortions fell sharply under law Supreme Court voided

If it was true, or even probable, it would be a terrible thing. But it’s not. There’s no evidence that Texas women are attempting to self-induce abortions more now that rigorous health and safety requirements are in place for Texas abortion clinics.

Here’s what The Atlantic reported last week: “Texas women are inducing their own abortions,” the headline read. “Researchers fear DIY pregnancy terminations will become more widespread if clinics continue shutting down.”

But is that true? What’s the evidence, and what’s the source?

“Between 100,000 and 240,000 Texas women between the ages of 18 and 49 have tried to end a pregnancy by themselves, according to a pair of surveys released Tuesday by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, a University of Texas-based effort aimed at determining the impact of the state’s reproductive policies,” The Atlantic reported.

The surveys were, in fact, online surveys – the least reliable kind, since anyone can answer and anonymity makes responders less likely to feel they need to be truthful. Also, responders are self-selecting. You’re not getting a representation of the general population; you’re getting the responses of those who are invested in the issue – people who might want to prove a point.

The surveys asked two questions of young women: Have you ever tried to self-induce an abortion? Has your best friend ever tried to self-induce an abortion (or do you suspect that she has)?

“Of the Texas women surveyed, 1.7 percent said they had performed an abortion on themselves, but 4.1 percent of them said their best friend had or they suspected she had,” The Atlantic reported.

If taken at face value, then yes, The Atlantic’s headline seems to be accurate. But on closer examination, the study is evidence of none of that.

And it said nothing about the Texas law that tightened regulations on abortion clinics.

“The study asked women whether they had ever attempted to self-induce an abortion,” pointed out National Review. “It did not ask whether they had attempted to self-induce an abortion after HB 2 took effect. As such, it provides no evidence that self-induced abortions have increased since HB 2 took effect in 2013.”

The survey is also flawed because it asks what a responder suspects about her friend. And it counts every “yes” – to a suspicion.

And since taking the drug Misoprostol would count – Misoprostol is easily available in Mexico without a prescription – the issue of “self-induced abortion” is conflated with taking abortion-ending drugs, even with a prescription. That’s not the terrible image we get of an anguished young women attempting a back-alley procedure on herself.

“Overall, the public-health crisis that critics predicted when HB 2 was signed into law has not come to pass,” National Review noted. “Abortion numbers have fallen by 13 percent in the year since HB 2 went into effect. The Texas birth rate has also been falling, so there is no evidence that HB 2 has resulted in an increase in the rate of unintended pregnancies.”

There’s simply no evidence Texas laws are endangering young women.