A recently released study by the research arm of Planned Parenthood abortion business, the Guttmacher Institute, suggests that the abortion rate in the United States is in decline, and the study authors are at a loss to say why. The number of abortions in 2014, the most recent year for which complete data is available, was 926,000. This is a continued decrease from 2013, in which there were 957,000 abortions. The last time the number of abortions in the United States was this low was in 1975.
The numbers echo the findings of other studies in recent years. However, this study is from the research arm of America’s largest abortion business, which has a vested financial interest in the widespread availability and acceptance of elective abortion as a “necessity.” As such the Guttmacher Institute often charges that Pro-Life laws lead to a decline in the number of abortions.
This is precisely why Pro-Life laws are passed- to defend the preborn from a violent death at the hands of an abortionist. Therefore, the Guttmacher Institute cannot simply state that Pro-Life laws save lives. In order to serve the political interests of their parent organization, the Guttmacher Institute insinuates that a decrease in the number of abortions leads to a threat to women’s health through an increased number of “self-induced abortions.”
Is there any truth to this claim? As Live Action noted:
If the “service” of abortion was truly “needed,” as Jones [the author of the report]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.”
What evidence does the Guttmacher Institute have to support their claim that fewer abortions are bad for women? Once again, we see the unscientific, manipulative “study” by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP) listed as “evidence.” Through leading questions given to a very small group of Texas women and then making far-reaching assumptions and inferences from their responses, TxPEP made the outrageous and unsupported claim that up to 240,000 women self-induced abortions in Texas, and that Pro-Life laws drove them to this drastic measure. An evaluation of the facts shows no evidence for this claim.
Sadly, this is not the first time TxPEP “research” has been used to advance the financial interests of the abortion industry. In striking down provisions of Texas House Bill 2, the Pro-Life Omnibus Bill of 2013, the Supreme Court relied on this same debunked TxPEP study. The reality is that the study was funded by an anti-Life billionaire to serve the interests of the abortion industry. As the recent report by the Guttmacher Institute demonstrates, we have not seen the last of this deceptive “study.”
As the number of abortions declines, lives are saved. Pro-Life laws undoubtedly play a role, but the greatest factor is perhaps the growth of the Culture of Life. Even the Guttmacher Institute admits that “further research is needed to understand the decline in abortion incidence.” More women are choosing Life, because more women are rejecting the lie that abortion is anything other than taking the Life of a preborn child. More women are choosing Life, because more Pro-Lifers are offering vital resources to women in crisis pregnancies. The Culture of Life is something for which the abortion industry will never be able to account in their self-serving studies.
While recent years have seen a decline, there are still almost one million innocent victims of abortion in our country every year. Although we have made great progress, there is still a long way to go.