U.S. passes 50
million abortion mark
At some point during the past two years the United States experienced
its 50 millionth legal abortion, the overwhelming majority of which
were conducted for reasons of convenience.
The tragic statistic -- which spans the 37 years since the U.S. Supreme
Court legalized abortion nationwide in 1973 -- is based on data
compiled by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute and tallied by the
National Right to Life Committee. Guttmacher's data is respected by
both sides of the issue and comes directly from abortion clinics.
The mark of 50 million was passed in 2008 and likely approached or
reached 52 million in 2009, although data is not yet available for that
year. The 50 million figure actually is an estimate based on Guttmacher
data from 2005 -- the last year of data -- when 1.2 million abortions
were performed. The abortion rate ranged between 1.2 and 1.3 million
from 2000 to 2005. If the same number of abortions performed in 2005
were performed in each succeeding year, then the number stood at 52
million at the end of last year.
To put the total in perspective, the combined number of military deaths
in all of America's wars –- from the Revolutionary War to the second
Iraq war –- is 1.2 million.
"We've been brutalized, desensitized and paganized by an ever-rising
flood of the unborns' blood as our nation continues to abort roughly
one out of every four babies conceived," Richard Land, president of the
Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said.
"I can still remember the Bible lesson I heard as a youngster in Sunday
School about how the people of God turned their back on the One True
God and went down into the Valley of Hinnom [2 Chronicles 28] to offer
up in pagan sacrifice their little children to the pagan god Molech. I
could never have imagined then that I would live to see the day that
America would offer up its unborn children as pagan sacrifices because
they were viewed as too expensive, too embarrassing, too ill or too
inconvenient."
Although pro-choice leaders often claim a solid majority of Americans
support the status quo on abortion, polling paints a very different
picture. An NBC News/Wall Street Journal Poll from September 2008
showed that 10 percent of registered voters believed abortion should
always be illegal and 37 percent believed it should be legal only in
cases of rape, incest and to save the mother's life -- totaling 47
percent who oppose the current laws. Similarly, a Los Angeles Times
poll of 1,039 registered voters in October 2007 found 50 percent
believed abortion should either be totally illegal or legal only with
those three exceptions.
The reason the abortion rate in America is so high is because the
Supreme Court's 1973 ruling was so far-reaching. Roe v. Wade -- coupled
with the court's companion Doe v. Bolton ruling -- legalized abortion
for any reason at any point of the pregnancy. That has led to a society
in which 86 percent of abortions are done for convenience, according to
a 2004 Guttmacher study of women who had had abortions. Rape and incest
each were cited by less than half of a percent of all women who
underwent abortion. Twenty-five percent said they weren't ready for a
child, 23 percent said they couldn't afford to have one, 19 percent
said they didn't want any more children, 8 percent said they didn't
want to be a single mother or they had relationship problems, 7 percent
said they were too young to have a child and 4 percent said they
believed a child would interfere with their education or career.
The reason that some polls show Americans supportive of Roe, pro-lifers
say, is because they don't know what it accomplished. Pro-life groups
this year once again are sponsoring a website -- RoeIQTest.com -- with
13 multiple choice questions to help educate the public about Roe's
reach.
"In spite of its impact, the true understanding of Roe and what it
accomplished remains relatively vague in the public consciousness," the
website states. "The ongoing debate over federal funding of abortion in
the proposed health care legislation has demonstrated that Roe
continues to be a contentious issue for many Americans. It is
imperative that we, as citizens, understand the facts about what Roe
does and does not do."
Contact: Michael Foust
Source:
BP
Publish
Date:
January 25, 2010
Link
to
this
article.
Send
this
article
to a friend.
The IFRL is the largest grassroots pro-life organization in
Illinois. A non-profit organization, that serves as the state
coordinating body for local pro-life chapters representing thousands of
Illinois citizens working to restore respect for all human life in our
society. The IFRL is composed of people of different political
persuasions, various faiths and diverse economic, social and ethnic
backgrounds. Since 1973 the Illinois Federation for Right to Life has
been working to end abortion and restore legal protection to those members of the
human family who are threatened by abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. Diverse though we are, we hold one common belief - that
every human being has an inalienable right to life that is precious and must be protected. IFRL is
dedicated to restoring the right to life to the unborn, and protection
for the disabled and the elderly. Click here to learn more about the IFRL.