The continued drop in the number, rate and ratio of abortions in the United States is a cause for celebration, but also a call for further efforts to protect children and assist women in need, Southern Baptist pro-life advocates say.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Nov. 23 the total, rate and ratio of abortions in 2015 — the latest year for which statistics are available — all declined by 2 percent from 2014. The ratio and rate reached their lowest points since the Roe v. Wade ruling legalized abortion in 1973, while that year was the only one since the Supreme Court decision with fewer abortions than in 2015, according to numbers attributed to the CDC.
Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, described the lower abortion rate as “good news. No doubt, the heroic advocacy of the pro-life community contributes to this lower rate.”
In 2015, 638,169 abortions were reported to the CDC, while the rate was 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women who were 15 to 44 years of age. The ratio was 188 abortions per 1,000 live births.
The decline in all three measurements was especially dramatic from 2006 to 2015, the period analyzed by the CDC in its latest report. The number of abortions fell by 24 percent during that span, while the rate and ratio decreased 26 and 19 percent, respectively.
Abortion-rights advocates credit better contraceptive use and fewer abortion clinics for the decline.
Seven states have only one abortion clinic in operation, according to an ABC News report in June.
Meanwhile pro-lifers point to such factors as the growth and ministry of pregnancy care centers, the advent of ultrasound technology, more state laws restricting abortion and requiring health and safety standards and efforts to educate the public on the humanity of the unborn child.
Surveys also have shown the millennial generation is more pro-life than older Americans. (BP)
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