The Feb. 3 article “Abortion rate at lowest point since 1973” tells only half the story and is even misleading.

The article would have one believe that Planned Parenthood and its contraceptive agenda are responsible for the abortion decline. Not so. Here’s what they don’t want you to know.

It’s the abortion ratio, not the abortion rate, that tells the true story behind the abortion decline. The abortion ratio is defined as the percentage of all pregnancies that end in abortion.

The Guttmacher Institute and its former affiliate, Planned Parenthood, resist mentioning it in detail because the abortion ratio is falling dramatically both nationally and here in Maine.

It indicates quite clearly what’s happening after a young girl or woman becomes pregnant. What’s happening is that they are rejecting abortion and choosing life in ever increasing numbers.

Here are the 2011 Maine resident abortion statistics, the latest available from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and available on the Maine Right to Life website, http://www.mainerighttolife.com.

The number of abortions for all age groups has declined four straight years, down 37 percent from 2,611 in 2007 to 1,644 in 2011. It’s even more eye-popping among teens and young adults (12 to 24 years), down 41.8 percent.

The all-important abortion ratio in the state is down from 15.6 percent in 2007 to 11.4 percent in 2011.

What is quite startling in all this is that all of this has happened without a single piece of pro-life legislation being passed by a dominant Democratic Legislature. The truth always manages to emerge in one way or another.

Carl J. Maddaleni

Cape Elizabeth