I'm not against folk wisdom. In fact, I have a bias that small is beautiful, and folk wisdom represents ancient knowledge accumulated by thousands over the ages.
Yet science is also good, and many times, much better than folk wisdom.
I had a friend in graduate school who touted the folk wisdom that eating the right fruits and vegetables would provide a natural contraception. After his wife had four unwanted pregnancies (!) he was still clinging to this view despite all the evidence to the contrary.
Another bit of folk wisdom, passed down by Rep. Todd Akin (R-Missouri), is that women who are "legitimately raped" have some sort of natural defense system that will prevent them from getting pregnant. (Let's ignore Akin's strange terminology of "legitimate" rape.) Perhaps the stress of rape would shut down key biological functions that would prevent conception or would prevent a fertilized egg from nesting in the uterus. If so, women won't get pregnant from "legitimate rapes" and thus don't need an option to abort.
But Politico's quick look at the scientific data shows the reverse to be the case. Women who are raped are more likely to become pregnant than the general population of people having consensual sex. The reason is selection bias. A rapist is more likely to pick young women who, on average, are more fertile than the general population. According to the FBI, there were about 88,000 rapes in 2009. If 5% resulted in pregnancies that would amount to 4,500 pregnancies per year from rape.
Science: 10. Folk wisdom: 0.
It would be nice if legislators had some reverence for science, even if it upsets their core beliefs.
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