We were sold corruption disguised as freedom. To kill a child is murder, but to kill a “fetus” is “a right.“ Now the painful sham of abortion is giving way to truth. And while America maybe headed for healing when it comes to this scourge upon its soul, the devastating consequences will linger. Jan. 22 marked the 38th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. Since that time more than 53 million unborn children have died.
Despite the carnage, the Guttmacher Institute recently announced the national abortion rate has plummeted over the past three decades. In 2008, the institute’s latest national figure, the rate was 19.6 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44. That is down significantly from 1981 when the abortion rate peaked at 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women. Guttmacher is considered reliable, even by the prolife movement, because it is the research arm of despicable taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood of America, our nation’s largest abortion provider. Abortions in Missouri are declining as well.
The abortion rate in the state dropped 10 percent from 2005 to 2008. The number of abortions in Missouri also fell by 11 percent. Women, ages 18-24, account for 45 percent of abortions by Missouri residents.
Much of the decline can be attributed to the Missouri General Assembly’s passage of tougher laws regulating abortion, much of which were signed into law during the four years Matt Blunt served as governor. Many of the laws were the result of pressure brought by pro-life organizations like the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC). MBC Legislative Liaison Kerry Messer has effectively lobbied and even written much of the pro-life legislation passed in recent years. Just last year Messer steered – and the General Assembly passed – a law requiring women to be informed about the risks before having an abortion. The law forces providers to meet in person with a woman at least 24 hours in advance of receiving the abortion. Providers must supply information on the medical risks involved with an abortion, let the mother see an ultrasound of her child and provide information on pregnancy resource centers.
The ultrasound has had a profound impact, causing a growing number of women to decide against abortion after seeing a picture that shows her baby.
A growing amount of research points to a link between abortion and breast cancer. Post-abortion depression and other mental problems have now been identified. All of this happens as Christians continue to pray for the killing to stop.
The pressure on the Missouri abortion industry has resulted in only three clinics remaining open. They are the Planned Parenthood clinics in St. Louis and Columbia (the Springfield clinic recently closed) and Women’s Care Gynecology Inc., in Bridgeton. All can expect more laws regulating their activity.
The sad news is that there are three clinics in Kansas, just outside Kansas City. They provided abortions to about 4,400 Missouri women in 2009. Another 2,383 Missouri women in 2009 went to the strangely named Hope Clinic in Granite City, Ill., for abortions.
Missouri lawmakers have made it easier for women to carry their babies to term. Since 1996, the General Assembly has appropriated anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million for alternatives to abortions. Pro-life lobbyists this year are urging passage of a bill reauthorizing the tax credit for donations to pregnancy resource centers. The tax credit allows donors to get back half of what they donate by applying it as a credit on their income taxes. A similar program exists for maternity homes. The tax credit will expire August 2012 unless legislators extend it.
Even if the majority of Americans got their way and the killing stopped, the consequences may yet spell our demise as a nation. Think of the dead babies that would be paying into Social Security or buying houses? How many Einsteins have been killed? Perhaps we killed the curer of cancer.
Urge your state lawmakers to continue the course. Urge your congressional representatives to defund Planned Parenthood. Also, pray God will heal our land.
DON HINKLE / editor