Is it true that everyone supports fewer abortions?

By Dave Andrusko

This will be a kind of good news/in spite of the good news post. Allow me to explain.

The title of the relatively short story was just four [encouraging] words long: “States report declining abortions.” And the first paragraph?

The first paragraph was even more hopeful: “Several states are reporting their abortion rates have fallen to the lowest point in four decades, underscoring a drop in abortions nationwide.”

The reporter cited just three states– Utah, Ohio, and Wisconsin–but could have mentioned many others. As NRL News Today has reported many times, the number of abortions and the rate of abortion have been going down and down and down.

What grabbed my attention was this:

The declining abortion rates are a rare phenomenon both opponents and supporters of the controversial procedure can support… [1]

Is that so? No, it isn’t so.

Would pro-abortionists “support” a decline in abortions because Crisis Pregnancy Centers increased in number and/or effectiveness? No, they loathe CPCs and would, if they could, drive every single one of them into the sea.

Would pro-abortionists “support” a decline in abortions because laws required abortion clinics to be better equipped and their abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital? No, they fight upgrading abortion clinic facilities tooth and nail.

Would pro-abortionists “support” a decline in abortions because there was a time of reflection for women between when they tell the abortionist they want an abortion and the time they can get one? Or if there is a requirement that women seeking an abortion have the opportunity to see their unborn baby?

Are you kidding me?

I’m not picking on the reporter. Most people would believe that everyone would celebrate fewer abortions. But that simply isn’t true as NRL News Today has written about countless times.

There are an increasing number of pro-abortionists who see an intersection between a reduction in the number of dead babies and notions of “autonomy” and “stigma.”

By that I mean they either flat-out celebrate abortion as an exercise in female “autonomy” or are unnerved by a decline because that might mean that the public continues to disapprove of abortion. (Hint: it does.)

We celebrate when there are fewer unborn babies tossed into the maw of the killing machine. Many of our opponents do not.

[1] The number of abortions and the abortion “rate” are separate measurements. The former is the absolute number of abortions, the latter is the number of abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44. They usually move in tandem, but there a few statistically unusual situations where you could have one going up and one going down.