America Aborted Baby 47 Million in 2005
The death of the 47-millionth unborn baby due to legal abortion occurred sometime in 2005, more than 30 years after the Supreme Court enacted Roe v, Wade in 1973.
The figure and timetable were calculated using data gathered by the Guttmacher Institute since 1973 and on estimates made by the National Right to Life Committee.
The Guttmacher Institute counted 898,600 abortions in 1974 (the first full year of completely legal abortion). The number peaked in 1990 at 1,608,600 abortions, and then fell in 2002 to 1,293,000. Without a change in the law or women’s habits, the number of abortions is calculated to pass 50 million in 2008.
“It’s an unspeakable tragedy,” Randall K. O’Bannon, director of education and research at National Right to Life reported. “That [47 million] is higher than the population of some countries. That would be wiping out a number of whole states.…”
O’Bannon continued, “Our society needs to put in context the enormous amount of loss that we’ve suffered — the enormous amount of intelligence, the enormous amount of creativity, the enormous amount of productivity.”
According to a recent poll by CNN/ USA Today/Gallup, 53% of Americans consider themselves pro-choice, and 42% consider themselves pro-life. But when Americans are asked specific questions on abortion, poll results change. A recent CBS News poll showed that 55% of U.S. adults were not fully for abortion, saying abortion should never be legal (5%), it should be legal only in case of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother (33%), or only to save the life of the mother (17%). Only 27*% believed abortion should be legal in all cases.
“I think that they’re becoming increasingly uncomfortable with abortion,” O’Bannon said. “I think, though, that there’s a great deal of ignorance out there. The partial-birth abortion campaign was very significant in the fact that it exposed just exactly what abortion is to a lot of people who thought of it in terms of some isolated issue. They began to see that what pro-lifers said about abortion stopping a beating heart was in fact true.
“However, I still think they are not aware of the numbers of abortions that occur, and they’re certainly not aware of the reasons that they occur.”
Only 1% of women report they had abortions due to a rape and less than 1% cite incest as the reason, according to a 2004 Guttmacher Institute study. Convenience is the main reason for an abortion at 86%: 25% saying they were not ready for a child, 23% saying they could not afford a child, 19% saying they didn’t want more children, 8% saying they didn’t want to be a single mother or had relationship problems, 7% believed they were too young to have a child, and 4% said a child would interfere with their education or career.
“In those circumstances, most Americans say, ‘No, we don’t believe that is a sufficient reason to have an abortion,”’ O’Bannon said. “What they are not aware of is that around nine out of 10 abortions are in fact done for those reasons.”
Can pro-lifers win the fight against abortion? O’Bannon believes they can win, “[but] it will only happen if people continue to make the case for the unborn child, and if pro-lifers and Christians make it clear that they care deeply about both the mother and the child and are willing to commit the time and the resources and the energy to being able not just to say those words but to make that a reality.”
See the Source: Michael Foust, “Tragic: U.S. passed 47 million mark for abortions in 2005,” Baptist Press, 20 January 2006, http://www.worthynews.com/news/bpnews-net-printerfriendly-asp-ID-22488/
Anti-Baby Hollywood Sued
Fact can be stranger than fiction. “General Hospital,” an ABC soap opera, carries storylines that are often unbelievable. But Kari Wuhrer, former actress in the popular daytime drama, is in a real-life battle to save both her unborn baby and her career. In a genre where adultery, pregnancy, fornication, etc., are common topics, the actress finds herself suing ABC-TV for $3 million, accusing the network of discrimination and wrongful termination as her character, Reese Marshall, was written out of the script when Kari Wuhrer became pregnant.
“The vile underbelly of the Hollywood Machine encourages female actors to be as beautiful and slim as possible,” the suit said. The suit went on to say that a pregnant actress has one choice if she becomes pregnant: Termination — either the child’s life or the mother’s career. The suit accuses ABC-TV of sex discrimination, pregnancy-based discrimination, wrongful termination and failure to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy, among other allegations.
See the Source: “Kari Wuhrer claims firing over pregnancy,” MSNBC, 17 January 2006, http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10838009/
