Report: 32,000 More Babies Get a Birthday After Dobbs
Plus more stories the abortion lobby hopes you missed over Thanksgiving
The battle for life takes no holidays. That was true as ever over Thanksgiving, though the abortion lobby probably hopes everyone was in too much of a tryptophan stupor to notice the real and inconvenient (for them) stories that came out over the past week.
First, an analysis of preliminary CDC birth data for the first half of 2023 suggests that states that have enacted pro-life protections “had an average fertility rate that was 2.3% higher than states where abortion was not restricted…leading to about 32,000 more births than expected.”
Media outlets like CNN, ever dour, lamented what they call an “unmet need” for abortion and didn’t have a single positive word to say about tens of thousands of children spared from lethal violence. But we think it’s great news worth celebrating, and it underscores the importance of a strong pro-life safety net ready to welcome these children and moms with loving, open arms.
And there’s more.
1. CDC: Abortion was increasing before Dobbs.
Abortions overall increased 5% in 2021, according to newly released CDC data. This is consistent with findings from Charlotte Lozier Institute. But while the CDC’s abortion reports have routinely lagged two to three years behind when the abortions occurred, our team was already on top of this trend.
In 2019-2020, six Democrat-led states enacted radical pro-abortion laws; others have followed. In 2021, the Biden administration announced it would stop requiring in-person doctor supervision for abortion pills – a longstanding safety measure – and make these dangerous drugs available to anyone by mail order. A federal court found earlier this year that this decision likely broke the law.
Lozier Institute researchers added:
The lack of quality and comprehensive abortion data in the U.S. also continues to be a national scandal, with four states not reporting any data at all in 2021, including late-term abortion states such as California, New Jersey and Maryland… Everyone on both sides of this issue should agree on the need for better reporting, which is why the CDC must make this a top priority moving forward.
2. Planned Parenthood finds a heart…sort of.
Stacey Abrams, call your office – since Dobbs, Planned Parenthood and others have argued that babies in the womb don’t really have beating hearts at six weeks (contradicting clear statements on their own website). Now they’re admitting that was a lie. From National Review:
Planned Parenthood has relied on the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), whose “Guide to Language and Abortion” and many amicus briefs said that “a fetal heartbeat exists only after the chambers of the heart have developed and can be detected via ultrasound, which typically occurs around 17 to 20 weeks’ gestation.”
…
Embarrassingly, even Planned Parenthood has now distanced itself from ACOG, albeit hiding its retreat in a recent footnote in a South Carolina filing: “[a]fter consulting with experts,” it “understand[s] that a heart forms earlier than that.” So much for ACOG being the “experts.” Planned Parenthood also concedes that all four chambers can be viewed well before 17 weeks.
Within the past two months, ACOG quietly deleted its grossly inaccurate claim from its ideological “Guide to Language and Abortion.” Yet, ACOG has apparently never publicly retracted this statement or provided an explanation for how it got basic scientific facts so wrong — and misled courts in the process.
How did this happen? The answer is simple and echoed in other medical debates: when it comes to controversial policy issues, medical interest groups like ACOG put their politics over science.
In August, ACOG came out in favor of abortion on demand at any time “without restrictions, without limitations and without barriers.”
3. Whitmer Imposes Partial-Birth Abortion on Michigan
In a move that ought to surprise absolutely no one, Michigan’s pro-abortion Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the pro-abortion, Democrat-controlled legislature did exactly what pro-life advocates said they would do in the wake of Proposal 3 and eliminated the most basic protections for babies and their mothers, including prohibitions on partial-birth abortion.
SBA’s State Affairs Director Sue Liebel warned:
What is happening right now in Michigan is a warning sign for states where abortion will be on the ballot in 2024. Through legislation or litigation, every single protection that exists for babies and women will be taken off the books. The abortion industry crafts these measure very intentionally so they can achieve complete deregulation and increase their profits at the expense of women’s health and safety.
4. Abortion lobby violated Nevada law; judge: “Not a tough call.”
Abortion activists pushing to enshrine a “right” to abortion on demand in the Nevada constitution got slapped down in district court for violating a state law that requires ballot petitions to cover only one subject. The Coalition for Parents and Children argued the petition muddies the water, lumping together abortion, birth control, prenatal care, and post-partum care, and “is confusing to the voter who may not understand what he or she is signing on to or is ultimately voting for.”
Judge James Russell said in his decision Tuesday, this was not a tough call.
“Again, it is clear to me this is probably the clearest case I have seen that I think there is a violation of the single subject rule,” said Judge Russell. “I just, I’ve seen a lot of them over the years and in respect to this particular matter, there are too many subjects. Not all of which are functionally related to each other.”
As we have covered here at America After Dobbs, Nevada already lacks virtually any protections for babies or women, and last year a young mother died of sepsis days after going to Planned Parenthood for a chemical abortion. The radical abortion lobby will do anything to obfuscate the real consequences of its agenda.
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