The Nevada LIFE Blog

Abortion Clinics Closing Across America.

47th Closes This Year

Abortion advocates are up in arms over the wave of abortion clinic closings across America.  They should be.  In 1991, there were 2,176 surgical abortion clinics in America.  Today there are less than 600 with 47 abortion clinics having already closed, or having been closed, this year.  That means that in the last 22 years, more than 70% of all surgical abortion clinics have closed for good!  Our efforts are paying off.

Abortion advocates realize the gravity of the situation.  Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager at the Alan Guttmacher Institute-the former research arm of Planned Parenthood says "This kind of change is incredibly dramatic….What we've been seeing since 1982 was a slow decline, but this kind of change ... [is] so different from what's happened in the past."

Abortion advocates fear that one day soon abortion on demand could be legal throughout pregnancy but there might not be anyone to provide one.  Abortion advocates are so alarmed that they have pushed through a bill in California that would allow some nurses and physicians’ assistants to do abortions.  For all of the abortion establishment’s talk about abortion safety, this is bizarre.  But considering that they oppose sensible regulations like abortion clinic standards to make sure that they are cleaner than a dog pound, have adequately trained staff, adequately sized facilities and adequate and functioning equipment etc. required of other outpatient surgical clinics, maybe we should expect it.

Abortion advocates are also pushing web cam abortions with abortion drug RU 486 in which the patient speaks with a doctor via web cam.  After consultation via webcam, a button is pushed and a drawer opens for the patient to take an RU 486 pill.  No examination, just a long distance web cam interview with no one from the clinic to care for them if the woman experiences one of the many RU 486 abortion pill complications. 

What’s causing the closings?

A September 3, 2013 Bloomberg News article puts it this way.

“A wave of regulations that makes it too expensive or logistically impossible for facilities to remain in business drove at least a third of the closings. Demographic changes, declining demand, industry consolidation, doctor retirements and crackdowns on unfit providers were also behind the drop. More clinics in Texas and Ohio are preparing to shut as soon as next month.”

Bloomberg adds, “legislatures are proving to be the most effective tool after Republicans made historic gains in the 2010 elections. Their success is creating one of the biggest shifts in reproductive health care since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 legalized abortion in all 50 states.”

One pro-life leader notes that “People who don’t have power protest on the street…People who have influence work from within to enact change."

As Bloomberg notes, 2010 was a powerful year for pro-lifers.  Not only did we win big margins in the United States House of Representatives, pro-lifers won big in state legislatures.  Life News says that “this year, 48 states have considered approximately 360 measures related to abortion, most of which sought to protect women and their unborn children from a predatory abortion industry which, as the Kermit Gosnell case aptly demonstrates, places concerns for profit over women’s health and safety. Of those, 69 provisions were enacted. This continued a trend begun in 2011 when 70 life-affirming measures were enacted, and 2012, when 38 such measures were passed — a large number for an election year.”

Much of this effort is a direct result of National Right to Life and its 50 state affiliates and over 3000 chapters persistently advancing the pro-life message and electing candidates to office. 

Another reason for the wave of closings is that most abortionists are past retirement age and few doctors are willing to take their place.  That is why abortion advocates are relentlessly trying to undermine conscience protections that protect medical personnel, insurers and facilities from having to participate in, provide, or pay for abortions.  That is also why we’ve seen attempts to force medical residents to take abortion training to become certified or to be part of a medical program, or to force graduate programs to provide or make provision for abortion training to receive accreditation.  So much for choice.

Finally, there’s been a cultural change that has led to less demand.  In the last 22 years, abortions are down 25 percent though our population has increased 25 percent.  The rate of women aborting is down 33 percent and the ratio of abortions to live births is down over 20 percent.  While polls fluctuate on whether more people are pro-life or pro-choice, when asked specific questions about abortion, poll after poll (including another National Right to Life poll) show that a majority of Americans (53 percent in the NRLC poll) oppose almost all abortions.  A Marist Poll found that a vast majority support significant abortion restrictions.  Only 11 percent support Planned Parenthood’s position of abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason.

We have much more work to do, but the patient, persistent, hard work of the pro-life movement is having a huge and sustained impact.