A study released on Friday found that abortions in the United States have decreased by approximately six percent since the June Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization effectively overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal in all 50 states.
The study, conducted by the pro-abortion group Society of Family Planning, found that “abortions provided by a clinician decreased from 85,020 abortions in April 2022, before the decision, to 79,620 abortions in August 2022.”
Conducted by #WeCount for the Society of Family Planning, the study seems to confirm what many pro-life activists were hoping for in the aftermath of the fall of Roe v. Wade, i.e., a decrease in the number of abortions nationwide.
#WeCount surveyed all U.S. clinics, private medical offices, hospitals, and virtual-only abortion providers. It looked at data from April of 2022 (before the decision) compared to post Dobbs numbers from August to come up with the numbers.
“This change represents a decrease of 6% in the number of abortions nationally, comparing April and August 2022,” according to the report. “Since the Dobbs decision, there were 5,270 fewer abortions in July and 5,400 fewer in August, for a cumulative total of 10,670 fewer people who had abortions in those months.”
In 13 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wisconsin — an outright ban on most abortions was triggered once Roe v. Wade was overturned. In Georgia, a law banning abortions after six weeks of gestation was triggered, with other states having placed restrictions on abortions after 15, 18, or 20 weeks.
In these states, of course, the number of abortions was far fewer, with “a decrease of 95% in the number of abortions, comparing April and August 2022 in states where abortion was banned or severely restricted.”
Overall, according to the report, “The national abortion rate decreased from 14 per 1,000 women of reproductive age in April to 13 per 1,000 in August.”
While a six-percent decrease in abortions is definitely good news for pro-lifers, it may seem like a bit of a letdown, given that 13 states have now essentially banned most abortions. But some feel that the data gathered by #WeCount might be underselling the effect of the Dobbs decision.
“It should be noted that the data used in the #WeCount analysis came from abortion facilities,” wrote Michael New in National Review. “It did not come from state health departments or government agencies, and so there are legitimate concerns about the accuracy of this data.”
Regardless, pro-life groups lauded the news from the survey: “The results from the #WeCount project confirm that pro-life laws save lives,” said Chuck Donovan of the Charlotte Lozier Institute. “There is nothing like the birth of a new baby, and these laws will translate into that miracle thousands of times over.”
Donovan wants women to know that there are options besides abortion.
“The abortion industry has only one message for women: you can’t do it. We’re now replacing that with something better: you can do it, and we will be there to support you,” Donovan said. “Already pro-life states have stepped up to support women and families — Texas alone has budgeted over $100 million to give women real options.”
Pro-abortion forces, of course, noted the survey results with equal parts doom and outrage.
“Over 10,000 people were unable to access abortion care in the two months following Roe v. Wade’s overturn, according to a new report by #WeCount Project,” tweeted pro-abortion group Catholics for Choice.
“These data represent thousands of people and families whose lives are turned upside down because of abortion bans,” said Ushma Upadhyay of the pro-abortion group Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH).
Not even Planned Parenthood itself can spin the results of the Society of Family Planning’s study as good news for the pro-abortion movement. Even though abortion remains legal in much of America, the practice is slowly (pardon the pun) dying off. Hopefully, soon, the barbaric practice of killing children in their mother’s womb will only be a painful memory of a less-enlightened time.
