Skeptic - Issue 27.2 - June 2022

86 Pages·2022·9 MB·English

30

YEARS
EXAMINING EXTRAORDINARY CLAIMS & PROMOTING SCIENCE SINCE 1992. VOL 27 NO 2 2022 $6.95 US & CANADA SKEPTIC.COM
The Science of Abortion
ABORTION MATTERS
SKEPTIC RESEARCH CENTER
A Data-Driven Look
The Case for Choice and The Case for Life Into Men’s Attitudes
Toward Abortion

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Big Pharma’s Cynical Search for a Female Sex Drug •
David Copperfield’s History of Magic • Deep Fakes: How to Know a Photograph,
Video, or Audio Recording is Real • Havana Syndrome Hysteria: 60 Minutes’ Sensational
Reporting on White House “Attacks” • Gimbal Video: Genuine UFO or Camera Artifact? •
Holy Grail, Spear of Destiny, and Ark of the Covenant • How Science & Reason Can Give Us
Objective Moral Truths Without God • Debate: Is Belief in ESP Irrational?

Co-Founder, Skeptics Society EXAMINING 30
Pat Linse, 1947–2021

Executive Director, Skeptics Society EXTRAORDINARY YEARS
Michael Shermer
Editor-in-Chief
CLAIMS & PROMOTING
Michael Shermer
Strategy Director
SCIENCE SINCE 1992
Alexander Reiman
Art Director & Webmaster
William Bull
A Letter From the Editor on the Topic of Abortion
Senior Editor
Frank Miele
There is arguably no more controversial subject in American politics and
Senior Scientists
society over the past half century than Abortion. Ever since the 1973 United
David Naiditch
Claudio Maccone States Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade that guaranteed the right
Liam McDaid of women to have an abortion during the first trimester efforts have been
Thomas McDonough made to curtail those rights, culminating this year in the pending Supreme
Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, regarding the
Contributing Editors
Tim Callahan constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi state law—the Gestational Age Act—
Harriet Hall, M.D. which bans any abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy except “in
Donald Prothero medical emergencies or for severe fetal abnormality.” Many legal experts
Carol Tavris
consider this case to be a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade that, if overturned,
Editorial Assistants the legal right to an abortion would revert to a states’ rights issue. Some states,
Diane Fisher such as California and New York, will guarantee full abortion on demand,
Sara Meric
while other states have passed laws that would ban abortion from the point of
conception. An additional 21 states are poised to ban or severely curtail access
Office Manager
Nickole McCullough to abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned. This decision is expected to come
down from the Supreme Court mid-2022, so we are publishing this special
Photographer
section on Abortion Matters to lay out the key terms of the debate under
David Patton
the banners of Pro-Choice and Pro-Life. We have done our best to present
Audiovisual Services the best arguments on both sides so that readers can decide for themselves
Brian Dalton what they should think about this contentious issue. —Michael Shermer
Brad Davies
Database Circulation
Jerry Friedman, J.D. Skeptic Magazine, Available in Print & Digital Formats
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CONTENTS
EDITORIAL / ADVISORY BOARD
Arthur Benjamin
Professor of Mathematics,
Harvey Mudd College, Magician
Roger Bingham
Science Author & Television Essayist
ABORTION MATTERS
K.C. Cole
Science Writer, Los Angeles Times
4 SkepDoc
Richard Dawkins
The Science of Abortion
Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford
BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.
Jared Diamond
Professor of Geography &
Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA 8 Abortion
Clayton J. Drees The Case for Choice
Professor of History, VWU
BY MICHAEL SHERMER
Mark Edward
Professional Magician & Mentalist 18 Anti-Abortion
Gregory Forbes The Case for Life
Professor of Biology, Grand
Rapids Community College BY DANIELLE D’SOUZA GILL
John Gribbin 18
Astrophysicist & Science Writer
William Jarvis
President, National Council Against Health
Fraud, Professor, Loma Linda University
Lawrence M. Krauss
Theoretical Physicist, Arizona
State University
Christof Koch
Professor of Cognitive & Behavioral
Biology, California Institute of Technology 28 Inequality & Rejection
William McComas A Data-Driven Look Into
Director, project to advance Science
Men’s Abortion Attitudes
Education, University of Arkansas
BY KEVIN MCCAFFREE & ANONDAH SAIDE
Bill Nye
Executive Director, The Planetary Society
Leonard Mlodinow

Physicist, California Institute of Technology
COLUMNS
Donald Prothero
Professor of Geology, Cal Poly, Pomona
30 A Closer Look
Nancy Segal
Professor of Psychology, CSU, Fullerton Big Pharma’s Cynical Search
for a Female Sex Drug
Eugenie Scott
(Retired) Executive Director, BY CAROL TAVRIS
National Center for Science Education
Julia Sweeney 58 The Gimbal Video
Writer, Actor, Comedian
Genuine UFO or Camera Artifact?
Frank Sulloway
BY MICK WEST
Research Scholar, MIT
Carol Tavris
Social Psychologist, Author
Stuart Vyse COVER ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN HOLCROFT
Behavioral Scie ntist, Author
REVIEW ARTICLES
38 The Discoverie of Magic 32 60 Minutes
Review of David Copperfield’s Whipping Up “Havana Syndrome”
History of Magic by David Hysteria, Airing Sensational
Copperfield, Richard Wiseman, Segment on White House “Attacks”
and David Britland
BY ROBERT E. BARTHOLOMEW
BY MICHELLE AINSWORTH
32
38
63 Meta Ethics
DEBATE Toward a Universal Ethics—
How Science & Reason Can
46 ESP Debate Give Us Objective Moral
Is Belief in ESP Irrational? Truths Without God
STEVEN PINKER BY GARY J. WHITTENBERGER
50 Pinker and the Paranormal 68 Holy Relics,
Some Critical Comments Holy Places,
Wholly Fiction
BRIAN D. JOSEPHSON; PINKER RESPONDS
BY TIM CALLAHAN
46
68
EXCERPT
78 Authors & Contributors
52 Deep Fake
52
How to Determine if a
Doctored Photograph, Video,
or Audio Recording is Real
BY TIM REDMOND
ABORTION MATTERS
SKEPDOC
The Science of Abortion
BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.
Abortion is controversial but ubiqui- light. He promptly changed his tune, could you possibly say to justify your
tous: 1 in 4 American women will have arranging for his daughter to have choice to the mother whose new-
an abortion by the age of 45,1 and, an abortion rather than have her life born baby you have chosen to let
around the world, 40–50 million preg- ruined by an unwanted pregnancy. die in the fire? Won’t she call you a
nancies2 end in abortion every year. This reminded me of Animal Farm, murderer, or, at least, morally and
where all animals are equal, but legally culpable through inaction?
Anti-abortion activists have long in- some are more equal than others. Did
voked moral and religious arguments that father believe that all abortions Since most women who request abor-
to convince others that abortion is are equally wrong but that they are tions don’t think of themselves as mur-
wrong, wrong, wrong, equating it somehow less equally wrong for his derers, anti-abortion activists needed
to murder. And, for some pro-lifers, own progeny than for other women? a more persuasive deterrent, so they
not just abortion, but anything that have come up with a new tactic:
interferes with the development of Someone came up with a clever claiming that abortions lead to serious
a potential human life is considered thought experiment designed to help adverse physical and mental health ef-
murder, even masturbation. This led people clarify their thinking about fects for the mothers. Never mind that
to the reductio ad absurdum of Monty potential human lives: A hospital is science has extensively studied poten-
Python’s song “Every Sperm Is Sacred.” on fire. You have only a brief window tial adverse effects and has proclaimed
of opportunity to get in and out safely. legal abortion safe. The findings of the
Some abortion activists seem not to If you turn left, you can go to the studies were mostly negative, and the
have thought this through carefully. nursery and rescue a newborn baby. results of the few positive studies were
In a book I read long ago about an If you turn right, you can go to the questionable because of methodolog-
abortion clinic, one of the most vocal lab and rescue six embryos frozen in ical flaws, such as unreliable self-re-
demonstrators picketing the clinic liquid nitrogen. If you really believe ports, outdated surveying procedures,
was a man adamantly against all those potential lives are valuable, and failure to consider possible
abortions until he found out his own wouldn’t it make more sense to save confounders. Perhaps the activists
teenage daughter was pregnant. That six lives instead of one? What would have some reason to believe the posi-
was too close to home for comfort. you do? How would you feel about tive studies are accurate despite their
It made him see things in a different it? If you rescue the embryos, what obvious flaws. Motivated reasoning?
4 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE VOLUME 27 NUMBER 2 2022
Illustration by Jess Suttner
Perhaps they think it is acceptable by the first sperm, preventing pene- fetus. Aristotle believed that the soul
to lie. Maybe they believe the ends tration by other sperm. The sex of the entered a male embryo at 40 days
justify the means if lives are saved. fetus is determined by whether the and a female embryo at 90 days; this
sperm has an X or a Y chromosome. claim was not based on evidence and
Science has recently learned that the makes no sense. As abortion became
When Does the Fetus egg can help determine which sperm legal in some jurisdictions, lawyers
Become a Person and succeeds3 by releasing chemicals into got into the act and muddied the
Have Human Rights? the follicular fluid that surrounds the waters. A convenient legal criterion
When Does Life Begin? egg. The sperm contributes centrioles asked whether the fetus could survive
that facilitate cell division. As the outside the body of the mother. This
These questions remain mired in con- zygote divides, the DNA of egg and is not a workable solution, because
troversy. Many people hold that life sperm are combined, and genes are as technology advances babies are
begins at the moment of conception. exchanged to create a unique indi- enabled to survive at ever-earlier
But conception is not a moment, it is a vidual that inherits genes from both gestational ages and ever-lower birth
process that unfolds over several days. parents. After several days, the fertil- weights. Another suggestion was
After ejaculation, millions of sperm ized egg travels down into the uterus, that life begins with “quickening,”
move up through the woman’s genital burrowing into the uterine wall in when the mother becomes aware
tract. The lucky one that wins the the process known as implantation. of fetal movements; but this is too
race meets an ovum in the Fallopian variable to be of any practical use.
tube, where the two join to form a sin- The Catholic Church holds that life Some have argued that life begins
gle-celled zygote, which then divides begins with ensoulment, but “soul” is when the baby takes its first breath.
to become a multi-celled embryo. The a religious concept, and, in any case, Theologians, philosophers, scien-
pellucid zone, a membrane surround- there is no way to determine whether tists, lawyers, and others have never
ing the egg, hardens after penetration a soul is present in an embryo or been able to reach a consensus.
VOLUME 27 NUMBER 2 2022 SKEPTIC.COM 5
Legal vs. Illegal Abortions the risk of complications from • mental health disorders;
medical versus surgical abortions6
Legal abortions are safe. Illegal abor- found adverse events in 20 percent • premature death.
tions are not. 19 million women have of medical abortions and 5.6 percent
unsafe abortions each year and 68,000 of surgical abortions. Adverse events After pointing out the limitations
of them die, mostly in developing included heavy or prolonged bleed- of the literature due to selective
countries. Causes of death4 include: ing, infection, physical damage, and recall bias and other methodolog-
incomplete evacuation of the uterus ical flaws, the report summarizes
• incomplete abortion (failure to requiring another procedure. The what the research has shown about
remove or expel all pregnancy study showed no differences between each area of potential harm.
tissue from the uterus); medical and surgical abortions in the
rate of infection, thromboembolic dis-
• hemorrhage (heavy or ease, psychiatric morbidity, or death. What Science Says About
prolonged bleeding); Risks From Abortion
• infection; Long-Term Adverse Effects Abortion does not have adverse conse-
quences for subsequent pregnancies. It
• uterine perforation (caused when the Anti-abortion activists tend to avoid does not cause secondary infertility. In
uterus is pierced by a sharp object); talking about short-term complica- fact, research found just the opposite.
tions and instead focus on creating A large registry-based study in 2016 in
• damage to the genital tract and fears about long-term consequenc- Finland8 compared women who had
internal organs as a consequence es that have been largely rejected had an abortion to women who had
of inserting dangerous objects by scientific studies or questioned not. Those with a prior abortion were
into the vagina or anus. because of poor methodology. significantly less likely to be treated for
infertility (1.95 versus 5.14 percent).
Legalizing abortion doesn’t significant- In 2018, the National Academies
ly change the number of abortions, published an extensive report7 from a Abortion does not increase the risk of
but it does increase their safety: only committee tasked with reviewing all ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancy
is known to be associated with upper
genital tract infection, but serious
infection after abortion is rare, espe-
WHATEVER THE RISKS OF GETTING cially now that antibiotic prophylaxis
is standard practice. Several literature
AN ABORTION, IT’S FAR RISKIER reviews have concluded that abortion
is not associated with an increased
NOT TO GET AN ABORTION. risk of ectopic pregnancy, although
admittedly all the published reviews
were methodologically flawed.
Abortion is not associated with an
increased risk of preterm birth in sub-
two deaths5 were reported among the published data about the safety sequent pregnancies. Several studies
legal abortions in the U.S. in 2018. and quality of abortion care in the found no association with adverse
U.S. as of 2018. It focused on four outcomes in subsequent pregnancies,
putative areas of potential harm: including a large 2013 Scottish study9
Short-Term Complications that the committee said had a number
• future childbearing and pregnancy of strengths compared to other studies.
Most abortions today are medical, outcomes (e.g., secondary infertility,
done with the drugs mifepristone spontaneous abortion and stillbirth, Abortion does not increase the risk of
and misoprostol, rather than surgical, preterm birth, low birthweight); hypertension of pregnancy or eclamp-
with vacuum aspiration or dilation sia. In fact, a 2013 study9 found that
and curettage. A study comparing • risk of breast cancer; women who had had an abortion had
6 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE VOLUME 27 NUMBER 2 2022
a lower risk of hypertensive disease mental health than delivering and that legal abortion of an unwanted
and a lower risk of preeclampsia. parenting a child that she did not pregnancy “does not pose a psycho-
intend to have or placing a baby for logical hazard for most women.”
Numerous studies have shown no link adoption.” Further, the “postabor-
between breast cancer and abortion. tion traumatic stress syndrome” that
The odds appeared to be lower10 for activists say is widespread is not What They Don’t
Want You to Know
women who had had a prior abortion. recognized by either the American
Psychological Association (APA) or the
The committee said, “As a result of American Psychiatric Association. Anti-abortion activists are happy to
the inability to control for the many frighten women with the alleged
ways in which women who have un- In 1987, President Reagan directed risks of abortion, but they are careful
wanted pregnancies differ from those U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop not to divulge this crucial informa-
who do not, no clear conclusions (known for his strong opposition tion: whatever the risks of getting
regarding the association between to abortion when he was appointed an abortion, it’s far riskier not to get
abortion and long-term mortality in 1981 to be the nation’s top public an abortion. Pregnancy is known
can be drawn from these studies.” health doctor by a president strongly to be hazardous to health, and the
supported by the Religious Right) to risks of continued pregnancy and
Likewise with mental health. Since examine the studies on the health ef- childbirth are well documented.
the science is so clear about the fects of abortion and prepare a report.
physical safety of abortion, activists Fifteen months later, Koop wrote a According to an article in Obstetrics
have focused on alleged mental health letter advising the President that he and Gynecology,12 “Legal induced
consequences such as depression, would not be issuing a report because abortion is markedly safer than
anxiety, post-traumatic stress, “the scientific studies do not provide childbirth. The risk of death asso-
and suicide. But, according to the conclusive data about the health ciated with childbirth is approxi-
Guttmacher Policy Review,11 “Neither effects of abortion on women.” At a mately 14 times higher than that
the weight of the scientific evidence congressional hearing, Koop said it with abortion. Similarly, the overall
to date nor the observable reality was clear to him that the psychologi- morbidity associated with child-
of 33 years of legal abortion in the cal effects of abortion are “minuscule” birth exceeds that with abortion.”
United States comports with the idea from a public health perspective. In
that having an abortion is any more 1989, an American Psychological Those are evidence-based facts, not
dangerous to a woman’s long-term Association review determined political or religious dogma.
REFERENCES
1 https://bit.ly/3JBLEAo The Safety and Quality of Abortion Care A register-based Cohort Study
2 https://bit.ly/3D0jwEM in the United States. Washington, DC: in Aberdeen, Scotland. BJOG: An
3 https://cnn.it/3N9Zqwv The National Academies Press. International Journal of Obstetrics &
4 https://bit.ly/3ugusdy 8 Holmlund, S., Kauko, T., Matomäki, J., Gynaecology, 121(3), 309–318.
5 https://bit.ly/355FolE Tuominen, M., Mäkinen, J., & Rautava, 10 Goldacre, M. J. (2001). Abortion and
6 Niinimäki, M., Pouta, A., Bloigu, A., P. (2016). Induced abortion—impact breast cancer: A case-control record
Gissler, M., Hemminki, E., Suhonen, on a subsequent pregnancy in first- linkage study. Journal of Epidemiology
S., & Heikinheimo, O. (2009). time mothers: A registry-based study. & Community Health, 55(5), 336–337.
Immediate complications after BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 16(1). 11 https://bit.ly/3Nd01NR
medical compared with surgical 9 Woolner, A., Bhattacharya, S., & 12 Raymond, E. G., & Grimes, D. A.
termination of pregnancy. Obstetrics Bhattacharya, S. (2013). The effect (2012). The comparative safety of
& Gynecology, 114(4), 795–804. of method and gestational age at legal induced abortion and childbirth
7 National Academies of Sciences, termination of pregnancy on future in the United States. Obstetrics &
Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). obstetric and Perinatal Outcomes: Gynecology, 119(2, Part 1), 215–219.
VOLUME 27 NUMBER 2 2022 SKEPTIC.COM 7
ABORTION MATTERS
ABORTION
The Case for Choice
BY MICHAEL SHERMER
Abortion is back in the headlines with above-the- states are poised to ban or severely curtail access to
fold coverage of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health abortions.3 The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson WHO,
Organization case now on the docket of the Supreme expected to come down from SCOTUS mid-2022,
Court of the United States (SCOTUS). It tests the will be a game changer of historic proportions.
constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi state law—the
Gestational Age Act—which bans any abortion after What follows is the case for choice based on: (1) the
the first 15 weeks of pregnancy except “in medical binary-thinking fallacy of the pro-life argument that
emergencies or for severe fetal abnormality.”1 human life and personhood begin at conception (a
continuous-thinking analysis shows that they do not),
Most legal experts consider this case to be a direct (2) even if we agree that a fetus is a human being, what
challenge to the 1973 SCOTUS decision in Roe v. Wade we have then is a conflicting-rights issue between the
that guaranteed the right of women to have an abortion rights of the mother and the rights of the fetus, so (3) if
during the first trimester, until fetal viability at around rights are to be legally protected for one over the other,
23 weeks, after which the state could protect its interest a stronger case can be made for a woman than a fetus
in the “potential life” of the fetus and regulate abortion because, (4) an actual human being and rights-bearing
to that end, including banning it altogether in the third person must take precedence over a potential human
trimester save for the life or health of the mother.2 being because, (5) the fundamental right of bodily
autonomy is one that has historically been expanding
If overturned, the legal right to an abortion would to include all adult humans regardless of race or gender
revert to being a states’ rights issue. Some states, because, (6) left unprotected, rights-bearing groups
such as California and New York, would, no doubt, tend to restrict the freedoms of those in non-rights-
guarantee full abortion on demand, but a dozen states bearing groups, historically most notably of men over
have passed laws that would ban abortion from the women. In the end, I believe we can find common
point of conception. And according to the Guttmacher ground between pro-life and pro-choice advocates by
Institute, as of December 2021, an additional 21 focusing on how to reduce unwanted pregnancies.
8 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE VOLUME 27 NUMBER 2 2022