Pro-life advocates gather at the 2013 Walk for Life in San Francisco, CA.
NARAL Pro-Choice America has given the United States a grade it can be proud of – a D – for “Women’s Reproductive Rights.” With the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade quickly approaching, pro-life America can hope that by the time the 42nd anniversary rolls around, that grade will have dropped to a solid F.
In the 23rd edition of Who Decides? That Status of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States, NARAL’s president Ilyse Hogue says:
In 2013, once again, we saw a litany of attacks against reproductive freedom in state legislatures across the country. There were high-profile battles in Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, and other states where lawmakers passed bills that closed clinics, put new obstacles in the way of women seeking abortion care, and outright banned abortion after 20, 12, or as early as six weeks.
While Hogue sees these new laws as “obstacles,” pro-life America knows that these laws mean that lives across the country will be saved from prenatal discriminatory killings based on age, gender, and disabilities. Abortion is a war against unborn people, and after 41 years, its demise is long overdue.
NARAL reports that in 2013, 24 states enacted 52 pro-life measures, and Arkansas held the lead with 8 new laws. Oklahoma had five, and Missouri and North Dakota enacted four. North Dakota even created a law to ban abortion after 6 weeks, known as the heartbeat bill. These pro-life victories are what earned the United States a respectable D from NARAL.
In addition to the large expansion of pro-life laws in 2013, NARAL reports that since 1995, 807 pro-life laws have been established across the United States. And currently, an astounding 87% of counties have no abortion provider at all. Remarkably, for 2013, NARAL gave half of U.S. states an F based on their lack of access to abortion.
NARAL’s report proves that once again, pro-life advocates have been working hard to end abortion in the U.S., and they’ve been winning. With each pro-life law, their efforts are rewarded in lives saved from abortion, and 2014 promises to be a life-saving, life-affirming year as well.
