didn t want or weren t ready for the child and how these children were more likely to have worst health and education outcomes as they grew up and ultimately be more likely to engage in criminal behaviors. the thesis, in other words, unwantedness leads to high crime. legalized abortion led to less unwantedness, therefore abortion led to lower crime. in amassing data, they divided states into three equal sized groups. the highest abortion rate states the medium abortion rate states and the lowest abortion rate states. they found that by 1997, 24 years after roe, there was roughly a 30% difference in what had happened to crime between the highest abortion states and the lowest abortion states. the study upset both sides of the abortion issue. as the wall street journal put it, conservatives were appalled that it found such positive consequences from a practice many of them found immoral.