What if abortions were viewed from a scientific perspective, instead of a political one, in context of public health? Would more people admit the obvious and address abortion as a public health crisis? Or would we still find ourselves arguing over very un-scientific and empty phrases such as, “my body, my choice?”
In a study published in the June 2016 online edition of the Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, a team of researchers from the University of North Carolina exposed the effects of abortion on national mortality rates and minorities.
Unlike most health studies or mortality statistics, authors James Studnicki, Sharon J. Mackinnon, and John W. Fisher chose to include deaths from abortion as human fatalities.
The study showed that abortion is the nation’s leading cause of death. In 2009, “diseases of the heart” was the official leading cause of death, with 599,413 recorded fatalities, followed by cancerous tumors at 567,628. Using estimates from the Guttmacher Institute, Studnicki, Mackinnon, and Fisher calculated 1,152,000 deaths from abortion in the United States in 2009, making it by far the leading cause of death, responsible for approximately 32.1% of all recorded deaths that year.
In addition to demonstrating the effects of abortion on national mortality rates, the study clearly demonstrated the abortion industry’s horrifying effects on minorities. Relying on statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Guttmacher Institute, the team of researchers concluded that abortion is responsible for 16.4% of deaths among whites (making it the third biggest cause of death behind heart disease and cancer), 61.1% of black American deaths, and a shocking 64% of Hispanic/Latino deaths – making abortion by far the leading cause of death for blacks and Hispanics/Latinos.
The study also contrasted the Years of Potential Life Lost (YPLL) from abortion with the YPLL caused by the nation’s most deadly diseases. For the entire population of the United States, cancer was responsible for approximately 4.4 million YPLL, with heart disease claiming over 3 million YPLL. But yet again, abortion stole the show with a staggering 68.4 million YPLL. And yet again, minorities were hit hardest.
National Right To Life News reports:
Of the 17.7 million YPLLs lost by Hispanics, nearly 15.5 million (or 87.4%) were due to abortion. Of the 29.4 million YPLLs lost by blacks, 25.4 million (or 86.5%) were from abortion.
“There is no credible scientific opposition to the fact that a new genetically distinct human organism begins with fertilization and that, simply stated, human life begins at conception,” the study authors explain. Therefore, they conclude, abortion does as a matter of scientific fact result in a human death – regardless of the fact that most statistics exclude these deaths.
