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Abortions Down 25 Percent, Reasons Why, And Why It Will Get Better
It is an honor for Don to have mentioned my Pastor’s name and my name as pastors helping the pro-life movement in Northern Nevada.
The yearly number of abortions has fallen 25 percent in the last 17 years to 1.2 million abortions per year. Almost all of them are for personal reasons having nothing to do with rape (less than 1 percent), incest or the life of the mother. 1.2 million
abortions are still alarming, but it is down from 1.6 million in the early 90s.
Why? Let me count the ways.
First, pro-life education and advancing technologies like ultra-sound, have destroyed abortion arguments. We all know what is in the womb. It’s a someone, not a something; a baby, not a choice, contents of the uterus, products of conception or whatever dehumanizing terms abortion advocates use. The popular arguments for abortion have become an embarrassment in the wake of ultrasound.
Second, the pro-life community’s passion to “love them both” has made a huge difference. While Planned Parenthood and abortion advocates pit the interests of the woman against her child for $400 an abortion 1.2 million times a year, volunteers and donors at Grace Home in Las Vegas, Casa Da Vida in Reno, City of Refuge in Gardnerville, the Carson City, Fernley, Fallon, Winnemucca, Elko, Reno, S. Lake Tahoe and other Crisis Pregnancy Centers and homes for unwed mothers are pouring themselves out to love both the mother and child. Planned Parenthood has no answer for the love of Steve & Sue Wren, Kathleen Miller, Pat Glenn, Carlene Napolitano and others who help these women and their unborn children.
Then there’s post abortion pain and the impact on women. This Saturday pro-lifers from Reno will join over 10,000 people at a rally and march through the streets of San Francisco under the banners “abortion hurts women,” “women deserve better than abortion,” and “I regret my abortion.” Abortion hasn’t worked- because it can’t work, and women are speaking out about it. That’s having a HUGE impact.
That’s not all. University of Alabama Political Science Professor Michael New says that pro-life laws, like parental notification, waiting periods, informed consent and other laws- which do not create an “undue burden” are a significant factor, if not the most important, in reducing the number of abortions, especially among teens. The educational impact of the Partial Birth Abortion Prohibition Act and The Unborn Victims of Violence Act has been huge.
But all of that is bad news to Planned Parenthood and other abortion advocates. They oppose all of the measures that reduce abortion. If they had their way, they would shut down crisis pregnancy centers tomorrow. They oppose standards for abortion clinics that would make them comply with other outpatient surgical centers. They oppose waiting periods, parental notification and among other things, informed consent. While most Americans believe that these are necessary for such a life changing decision and that parents have a right to know, Planned Parenthood thinks this is “limiting access to abortion.” What’s more, they support Partial Birth Abortion. So much for making abortion rare. So much for calling us extremists.
There’s something else going on in Nevada- at least in N. Nevada. When I arrived in Sparks as an associate pastor 17 years ago, we could count on Paul Holland, Robert Owens, Herb Ireland, Jim Wallace and a few other pastors to support pro-life efforts, but that was about it. All that has changed. New pastors like my pastor Steve Bond, my pastor Roger Yount, John Jackson, Greg McIntosh (now in Las Vegas), Roger Canary, Joe Taylor, Pat Propster, Fr. Norm King, Fr. Mark Hannifin, Bishop Calvo-the most energetic Bishop I’ve ever seen, youth pastors like Gabriel Rodriquez and Bryan Smith and many other clergy are now in Northern Nevada and supportive of pro-life work. There are many others which would take too long to list.
The encouragement of these pastors is wind beneath my wings.
Well, it’s 25 percent down and 1.2 million to go. That’s a huge number but here’s the most encouraging sign. Young people are profoundly pro-life! There are many reasons, but in 2003 Boston College junior Kelly Kroll told the New York Times that “she is a ’survivor of abortion’ because she was adopted. ‘Myself and my classmates have never known a world in which abortion wasn’t legalized,’ she said. ‘We’ve realized that any one of us could have been aborted.”’ “Surprise mom, I’m against abortion.”NY Times, March 30, 2003.
Our opponents can’t figure this out and are in hysterics. We are going to be roughed up, face setbacks, and suffer some more, but friend, we own the future! Thank you CPC workers, thank you pro-life lobbyists, legislators, pastors, prayer warriors, email list forwarders, letter writers, contributors, encouragers and those of you who support the work. We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we are making progress. Let’s keep marching until every child is protected in law and welcome in life.
Don Nelson
Nevada LIFE
Comments
That is really encouraging to read! I hope that abortion rates continue to drop; how amazing would that be?!
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