2021 is a year of celebration for the Pro-Life movement’s strides against abortion, but also a time of lament for the obstacles that continue to hamper further progress. This was the message delivered by members of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a Pro-Life organization, on a recent edition of the Faith and Law podcast. The panel included Charles Donovan, president of the Lozier Institute, Mary Harned, a Pro-Life litigator, as well as Michael New and Tessa Longbons, who specialize in statistical research on abortion.
Donovan began by discussing the shifts in rhetoric around abortion since the 1970s.
“The advocates for Roe v. Wade did what they could to minimize what they were really for,” Donovan argued. “They were willing to acknowledge that [abortion] was not the best choice in many circumstances, they were willing to countenance explanations of Roe that had only applied in the first 12 weeks when it made abortions legal, which of course it didn’t, it went further. But they were also willing to say that they would allow some restrictions or at least they wouldn’t challenge everything we would propose.”
This moderation did not last, however, and though in the 1990s the phrase was that abortion should be safe, legal and rare, “we are not in that environment now.” As Harned went on to explain: “Abortion advocates no longer want ‘safe legal and rare abortion’… Safe has become negociable and they expect state lawmakers to scrap ‘rare’ replacing it with ‘free and accessible.’ The reason that a desire for an abortion be rare implies that as a pregnancy outcome abortion is inferior to childbirth and may even be wrong and that stigmatizes women who have had abortions.”
Although the whole of the population is probably more split on abortion, the far-left flank of the Democratic party seem to have taken over the party’s rhetorical and legislative strategy. While rhetorically it may be hard to convince the rest of the nation that the choice to abort is morally neutral, in state legislatures abortion advocates are having more success.
“Abortion advocates have had greater success in state legislatures friendly to abortion…. The new laws in Vermont and New York legalize abortion through all 9 months of pregnancy and preclude any meaningful protections for women considering abortion,” Harned continued.
Although there are many areas for the Pro-Life movement to focus upon, Harned believes that the main Pro-Life struggle during the Biden presidency may be protecting the Hyde Amendment. The amendment makes it so that federal funds cannot be used for abortions, such as for women on Medicare or Medicaid; without it there would be tens of thousands of more abortions per year. Harned noted that the Hyde Amendment has been increasingly attacked as “racist and discriminatory” because it disproportionately places financial burdens on minorities.
Perhaps the worst development of all though has been the advent of easily accessible chemical abortion pills, which Harned called the “chemical abortion revolution” whereby “the FDA has swapped the proverbial coat hanger for a pill.”
Despite all the rancour of abortion debates, however, Harned emphasized that “Just as every unborn child is made in the image of God, so is every abortion advocate and provider…. They need our prayers as much as they need us to speak truth into their lives.”
Longbows, the statistician, noted that “37 states shared chemical abortion data with the CDC between between 2009 and 2018, and early chemical abortions, defined as those at or before 9 weeks of gestation, increased by 120% over that 10 year period, going up from 17 to 38% of the total [abortions].” The most recent data do not point to a slowdown in chemical abortions, either.
Longbows went on to say that “as of May 2021, 32 states have released abortion statistics through 2019 and 29 of those states have included data on chemical abortion for both 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, in this subset of states total abortions are up by almost 2% and chemical abortions are up by almost 11% from 2018. And it looks like many of those trends continued into 2020.”
What’s more, chemical abortion pills are also far more dangerous for the women who take them than other abortion procedures. Lonbows added that “multiple studies have found that chemical abortions have complications at 4 times the rate of surgical abortion, including studies from countries with much more comprehensive data than the United States, like Finland.”
Michael New concluded the presentation with some positive developments.
“[There is] long term decline in the U.S. abortion rate. Since 1980 the abortion rate has fallen by more than 53% and it’s lower than it was in 1973,” New noted.
Despite abortion advocates “bending over backwards” to explain this phenomenon with increased access to contraception, New insisted that contraception isn’t enough to account for the decline on its own. This suggests that in politics and culture we are on the path to ending abortion.
Comment by Diane on June 23, 2021 at 8:28 pm
Those on the right refer to this as the pro-life Movement. Others give it another tag: it’s as the “forced- birth” movement.
It’s been said if men were the ones to have carry a child for nine months, endure morning sickness and labor to birth said child, nurse the baby, make sacrifices, including leave their employment for weeks, months, or years to responsibly care for the child, then the government – the majority of which is male lawmakers – would make sure abortion- on-demand would be readily available, accessible, and free of charge.
Comment by Patrick98 on June 24, 2021 at 9:30 am
It has been said “if men were the ones to have carry a child for nine months, endure morning sickness and labor to birth said child, nurse the baby, make sacrifices, including leave their employment for weeks, months, or years to responsibly care for the child, then the government – the majority of which is male lawmakers – would make sure abortion- on-demand would be readily available, accessible, and free of charge.” by who, and why should we take them seriously?
Comment by George on June 29, 2021 at 7:46 am
Would it not make since that for those who must shoulder the horrible ordeal of having a child and raising that child, be more responsible when engaging in sexual activity? Please spare me the excuse of it’s the “man’s” fault. It takes two to make a baby and best when raised by two loving parents. Abortion on demand has become that “ace in the hole” for those who gamble in their sexual activities. I’m not talking about the young children who are abused by adults or those faced with having a child with horrible defects. I pass no judgement on those people. I will point the finger at those who act irresponsibly and after making a child then decide to kill it. Shame on them !