July 23, 2014 2:54 PM

Study: After HB2, abortions drop 13% but at a cost

"...a strategy that shifts from “demand side” – informed consent, waiting periods, parental approval – to a strategy of “supply side” – restrictions on doctors and medical facilities."

Sen. Dan Patrick’s camp has remained strangely silent, although a new study out today shows the impact of House Bill 2 has been a 13 percent reduction in abortions.

On the floor of the Senate, Patrick often told his colleagues he wanted to make abortions medically safer and make sure those seeking abortions had the best available information to make informed decisions. But he also didn’t shy away from talking about his own desire to protect life from conception.

“When you wake up in the morning, you have to know what you believe in. When I wake up in the morning, I know what I believe in,” Patrick told San Antonio Express News reporter Kolten Parker last session, a clip he posted on his campaign website. “I respect and follow the law, as is. So we pass the sonogram bill, we’ll pass this bill. We’ll do everything we can to reduce the number of abortions -- which we are in Texas -- under the law, but the question is, ‘Do you want to end abortion?’ And the lieutenant governor didn’t answer that question. I want to end abortion.”

The shorthand from an initial report that will appear in the journal Contraception does appear to support Patrick’s goals. The number of abortion clinics in Texas has dropped from 41 to 22. The percentage of abortions, once some of the initial restraints of House Bill 2 were in place, dropped 13 percent. And the percentage of early-term medical abortions – those abortions induced by a combination of drugs -- was down 70 percent between last November and the end of April.

By Kimberly Reeves