Abortion Advocates Are Losing Traction-RGJ Op-ed January 27, 2013

By Don Nelson and Melissa Clement.

At the 40th anniversary of the notorious Roe v. Wade decision, pro-abortion Time magazine says that “Abortion-rights activists won an epic victory in Roe v. Wade. They’ve been losing ever since.” Abortion advocates have serious political and financial assets. But despite their vast political and financial resources, abortion advocates are losing traction.

Polling consistently shows that a majority of Americans oppose almost all abortions and a greater number support abortion limitations. Only 25 percent support Planned Parenthood’s policy of abortion throughout pregnancy with no restrictions. In the past 20 years, abortions are down 25 percent, though our population has increased 25 percent. The rate of women having abortions is down 33 percent, and the ratio of abortions to live births is also down. Many laws supported by people who are pro-choice are being passed in the states.

Why the change on abortion?

First, Roe and abortion advocates are extremists. Roe struck down abortion laws in all 50 states and, along with its companion case Doe v. Bolton, made abortion on demand legal throughout pregnancy for almost any reason. The result and legacy is an unconscionable 55 million abortions, almost all of which are because the child was in the way and could not defend herself; not for the rare instances of rape, incest or the life of the mother.

Abortion advocates oppose almost any restriction on abortion including brutal partial-birth abortions, parental involvement, waiting periods, clinic safety regulations, and they oppose conscience rights of medical personnel, hospitals and insurers to not provide, pay for or participate in abortion. They even oppose abortion restrictions after the unborn can feel pain.

Second, the pro-life movement is vibrant with young people. NARAL Pro-Choice president Nancy Keenan is retiring because she sees so many young people at pro-life rallies and people at pro-choice rallies for the most part are old.

Third, new technological advances prevent abortion advocates from hiding behind their dehumanizing descriptions of the unborn as a blob of tissue, contents of the uterus and products of conception.

Fourth, the personal cost of abortion is staggering. Abortion has come with huge emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical costs for many.

Two-thirds of abortion clinics have closed, and fewer doctors are willing to do abortions. This explains the attempt to force some medical residents to take and force medical schools to provide abortion training, and to force ob-gyns to perform or refer for abortions. It also explains their advocacy for laws to allow others besides doctors to do abortions.

These are some of the reasons that abortion advocates are said to be losing despite their considerable financial and political clout.

Don Nelson is president on Nevada LIFE. Melissa Clement is president of Nevada Right to Life.

Planned Parenthood Rakes $542M Taxpayer Funding, 333k Abortions in 2011-2102 Report

Oh my.  The Susan B. Anthony List reports that

 ·        “During fiscal year 2011-2012, Planned Parenthood reported receiving a record $542 million in taxpayer funding in the form of government grants, contracts, and Medicaid reimbursements. Taxpayer funding consists of 45% of Planned Parenthood’s annual revenue.

·        In 2011, Planned Parenthood performed a record high 333,964 abortions.

·        Over the past three reported years (2009-2011), Planned Parenthood has performed nearly one million abortions (995,687).

SBA List also says “Planned Parenthood reported $87.4 million in excess revenue, and more than $1.2 billion in net assets.”  Abortion accounts for 92 percent of their services for pregnant women. 

 

Planned Parenthood profits off the taxpayer and by crushing the unborn.   

 

Click here to read the SBA List Fact Sheet on Planned Parenthood's 2011-2012 Annual report. 

 

Roe At 40: 55 Million Abortions. No Reason To Celebrate

January 22nd marks the 40th anniversary of the notorious Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton decisions which struck down abortion laws in all 50 states, made abortion legal throughout pregnancy for almost any reason and led to 55 million abortions. There are 1.2 million more abortions every year. And with less than half of one percent of all abortions for rape, incest, and a small number for when the life of the mother, almost all abortions are for personal, not medical reasons. 

This is nothing to celebrate. Roe is to be condemned as the most unjust, dark, most reprehensible decision in American history. Pro-lifers oppose Roe and abortion because the right to abortion comes and is exercised at the expense of innocent unborn human beings.

The unborn is not a mere blob of tissue, products of conception or a human non person or any other dehumanizing terms abortion advocates use to justify killing the unborn. The unborn is one of us-someones, not somethings-a unique, alive, whole human being, an unborn baby boy or girl who-from the first moments of their existences-possess a fully human nature with inherent capacities of fully functioning adults, who share completely in our humanity.

Roe is unjust because it tramples upon and stripped the human rights and right to life from a whole class of people. It is the most unjust decision in American history because the unborn is the weakest and most helpless member of the human family whose weakness demands our care, protection and compassion. Their weakness and inability to defend themselves, their absolute dependency on their mothers is no more an argument that they are human non persons who can be disposed of than any other class of human beings who are dependent upon others. The unborn's weakness demands greater compassion since societies are judged by the way they treat its weakest members. It is impossible to be a compassionate and just society when we kill our weakest members. (Compare this to Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger who said, "The most merciful thing that the large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.").

Abortion violates the self-evident principle that all humans are created equal and are endowed with the unalienable right to life. Abortion undermines universal human rights because it means that human rights and the right to life are no longer inherent or unalienable rights. It says that there are certain classes of human beings without human rights who are disposable for others and that being human is not enough to have human rights and the right to life. When human rights are denied anywhere, they are threatened everywhere. When anyone becomes expendable, we all become negotiable.

This will be especially true for the generation that tolerated Roe. They are on the verge of a bankrupt nation deciding they are expendable for the same reasons they thought the unborn were-that they are expensive, burdensome, in the way, and can no longer defend themselves.

It is impossible to truly celebrate the dark nearly absolute abortion right granted in Roe because those seeking liberty and equality through abortion do so by crushing the weakest members of our society and depriving them of their equality and liberty.

The injustice of abortion and the nearly unlimited right to abortion granted by Roe, the 55 million abortions that have ensued (55 million is equal to all of the people in Oregon, California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah), the 1.2 million additional abortions every year-these have fueled the pro-life movement for 40 years and will energize us until Roe and abortion on demand are ended.