There are also stories about adults getting kidnapped 2 blocks from home. People still leave the house.

> Getting abducted on the way to school isn't.

I’m not so sure about that. I live in an affluent part of WA where there’s close to zero crime. A couple times a year we get emails from the school district with descriptions of cars and people that approached kids on their way to or the school, trying to get the kids into their cars. An actual abduction has never occurred in the 5 years that I’ve lived here, but clearly there are attempts.

Are abductions rare because they almost never happen in the first place, or because Americans take extreme measures to avoid them?

Even before helicopter parenting was a thing in America (and this continues to hold today), the vast vast vast majority of abductions happen by a relative of the child. Abductions are already very rare, but of those that happen only 3.1% are by a stranger[1].

[1] https://www.seeker.com/child-abductions-by-strangers-very-ra...

Aren't the extreme measures a recent thing, like the last 10 or 20 years?

I don't remember being Molly cuddled like today's kids and I'm in my late 30s (UK).

molly-coddled

Molly cuddling does sound cuter, though.