Washington Post: The Best Place to Raise a Family Depends on Abortion Access and LGBTQ Rights

Dmitri Bolt | November 13, 2025 3:30 PM

The Washington Post published an opinion piece by Youyou Zhou on Sunday, seeking to identify where she believes are the best places to raise a family in the United States. However, in their analysis, one of their metrics included state policies on abortion access and LGBTQ rights.

From the article:

We scored each county based on how well it performed across the four metrics. A better public school district and a lower crime rate moved up the county’s score, while limited personal liberty, fewer state-mandated parental leave days or higher costs of raising children lowered the rate.

They even began the piece lamenting the declining birth rate in the United States. They then still included abortion access as an influential factor in the decision of people to start and raise families:

The United States is reaching its lowest birth rate in history, but that alarming outcome isn’t necessarily intentional. Pew Research Center data show that the majority of young Americans today still want to have children: More than 7 out of 10 people in their 20s and 30s have or plan to have at least one child, and the majority of nonparents between ages 18 and 34 say they want to be parents someday.

They also highlighted that in order to start a family, the parents must "feel safe to conceive," and that factor is dependent on "the varying level[s] of abortion access" across states. They continue, saying that "Research shows that in states where abortions are banned mothers are more likely to die from unwanted pregnancy and infant mortality increased due to birth defects." However, they fail to acknowledge the corresponding rise in abortions and the resulting loss of unborn lives that accompany such policies.