According to a report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, the number of abortions committed in the United States has dropped to under 1 million for the first time since 1975.
In 2013, 957,000 abortions were committed in the U.S., and in 2014, that annual number dropped even further to 926,000. The largest decrease in abortions occurred in the West and the South, but there were fewer abortions reported in the entire country as a whole. Below is a medically animated video where Dr. Anthony Levatino, a former abortionist, explains a D&E abortion, one of the most common types of abortions committed in the U.S.
Unfortunately, the Guttmacher Institute did not investigate why abortions have reached a historic low in the U.S. (nor did it account for the Morning After Pill or abortifacient birth control in its numbers), but hinted that the reduction could be due to improved contraceptive use as well as new abortion restrictions and the closing of numerous abortion facilities. The Guttmacher Institute wrote in the study results that “most states that experienced the largest proportionate declines in the number of clinics providing abortions had enacted one or more new restrictions during the study period, but reductions were not always associated with declines in abortion incidence.”
What this shows is that pro-life efforts to place restrictions on abortion — such as 20-week abortion bans — are working to help prevent abortions. “While many find ways to access care despite these obstacles, some of the abortion rate decline is likely attributable to women who were prevented from accessing needed services,” said the author of the report, Rachel Jones.
If the “service” of abortion was truly “needed,” as Jones claims, then the end result for these women must have been terrible, right?… or perhaps not. In fact, it is likely that these women simply gave birth to their children instead of aborting them — thereby negating the assertion that abortion was “needed.” As we saw in the case of a Texas study which falsely claimed babies were born because Planned Parenthood was defunded in Texas, some in the pro-abortion camp feel that “sad face” emojis are warranted when abortion rates drop and babies survive.
While the number of abortions declined overall, the number of early medication abortions increased, making up 31 percent of non-hospital abortions — an increase from 24 percent in 2011. This is one reason spreading the truth about the possibility of abortion reversal is so important. Many women find themselves regretting their medication abortion, after taking the first pill and sitting at home for hours, waiting. A network of doctors and a 24-hour, nurse-staffed hotline (1-877-558-0333) is available to potentially help these women who want to reverse their abortions, but time is of the essence.
With a pro-life majority in both houses of Congress ready to defund Planned Parenthood and propose more legislation aimed at protecting preborn children, we could see more abortion restrictions in 2017, leading to an even greater decline in abortion numbers. On January 12, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) introduced a federal version of “The Heartbeat Bill” which would require all doctors to search for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion — and if they are able to detect one, the abortion would not be legal.
While each new, unique, human life scientifically begins even before the heartbeat — at the first moment of fertilization — thousands of lives would be saved if this bill becomes law.
The pro-life movement has been gaining momentum in recent years thanks to increased education efforts, the technology to prove that life begins at conception, access to pro-life resource centers to help women facing crisis pregnancies, and laws that restrict abortion.
