Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the United States. They perform more than 20 percent of American abortions. But they are slowing closing some of their clinics. Citizen Link reports that "Back in 1995, Planned Parenthood had 938 clinics in operation. Even though they opened hundreds since then, now there are only 817, marking a tremendous decline in services." Jim Sedlak with the American Life League’s STOPP Campaign says Planned Parenthood has "been closing down more than a clinic a month since 1995 and they are now at the lowest level they’ve been since 1987.”
Abortion advocates scream that there are no abortion clinics in over 80 percent of the counties in the United States. This is a bit of info that misleads people to think that abortion is very restricted in the United States and that the right to abortion is near to being snuffed out. If only it were true.
The truth is that like any product or service, there has to be a demand for it. For anyone who has been to the other 14 counties besides Washoe (Reno/Sparks) and Clark (Las Vegas) and Carson City, it is clear why there are no abortion services there. There's little demand. The fact that Planned Parenthood is closing clinics-some of course by consolidation, shows that the demand for abortion is decreasing.
I think that reducing the demand for abortion, as you say is happening, is the best way to reduce abortions. It's more effective than trying to outlaw abortion.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Scott Hughes
http://forums.anti-abortion.info
Scott,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. I think the "demand" for abortion has been diminishing due to the educational work on the nature of the unborn, the violence it does to the unborn, how abortion has impacted women (and men) and because of the heroic work of the volunteers at over 3500 crisis pregnancy centers who provide alternatives to abortion and resources.
Feminists for Life (www.feministsforlife.org) says that most women would not abort if they would have had support. I can't count the number of women who say if they only knew more about the unborn and then the available resources, then they would have never aborted.
So I agree that this is very important and it has been very effective in lowering the abortion rate.
Will legislating against and "criminalizing" abortion be effective? Yes, probably like criminalizing slavery has abolished slavery in America and as other legislation is diminishing other civil rights/human rights abuses in America. But it is definitely a long and hard road and causes a lot of social conflict and anguish.
Before Roe there were probably 100,000 abortions, maybe 200,000. The next year there were over 700,000 abortions with a peak in the early 90's at about 1.6-1.7 million abortions. Now there about 1.3 million a year. Making abortion legal has vastly expanded abortion. And by making it legal, has given it a moral legitimacy.
So while the demand is going down through educational efforts and works of mercy, and regulation the legal component is necessary too. That doesn't mean we'll stop ALL abortions anymore than criminalizing grand theft or murder has stopped ALL of those crimes. But it does reduce the incidences and it does have an educational impact.
Nevada LIFE and other groups aim to make abortion illegal because we believe the unborn has an unalienable and fundamental right to life and as a result abortion is the unjust taking of a human's life. If we left it to making abortion unnecessary, then we would still be leaving the destiny and life of the unborn, to another person.
I think both of these avenues of reducing abortions are necessary. Most are going to be more involved in one than another.
Thanks again for your comments.
Don Nelson