A ‘Disastrous’ Decade for Abortion

US Supreme Court agrees to hear case on restrictive abortion law
AFP
Dr. Susan Berry

BuzzFeed News spelled out what Planned Parenthood and many abortion rights advocates have been lamenting as they look back on the last decade: abortion is still as highly controversial as it was in 1973 when the Supreme Court invented a right to the procedure.

The past decade saw former President Barack Obama become the first chief executive of the United States to address Planned Parenthood at its annual gala and even invoke God’s blessing on the abortion business.

Obama and establishment Washington politicians also allowed millions of dollars in funding through Obamacare to be funneled to Planned Parenthood, enabling the far-left organization to launch the narrative that abortion is “health care.”

Indeed, the former president of Planned Parenthood enjoyed frequent, easy access to the White House during the last decade. As of July 2015, Cecile Richards had already made 39 visits to the White House since 2009, when she first was a guest on Obama’s inauguration day.

In addition, as late as last week, Planned Parenthood – the nation’s largest abortion business – remains funded with American taxpayer dollars.

Despite all abortion rights proponents appeared to achieve, BuzzFeed noted the past decade has been “disastrous” for abortion rights and that, “as the decade draws to a close, the national right to abortion is in the most vulnerable place it’s been in decades.”

The report continued:

Since 2010, hundreds of laws restricting abortion access have been enacted all over the country, making the procedure less attainable and forcing abortion clinics to close. The US has gone from having around 1,720 facilities that perform abortions in 2011 to 1,587 in 2017 (the last year reproductive rights group Guttmacher Institute surveyed). As of this year, there are six states with only one abortion clinic left. Twenty-five abortion bans were signed into law in 2019 alone, leading to nationwide protests. Though all, so far, have been blocked by the courts, a major fight over abortion rights at the Supreme Court is yet to come.

“It’s been a rough decade for those that support abortion rights,” Elizabeth Nash of the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute told BuzzFeed News. She said pro-life policies are “like a steady drumbeat getting louder each year.”

The murder conviction of abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who snipped the spinal cords of babies born alive after botched abortions, and an exposé by Center for Medical Progress of the fetal tissue trafficking practices of Planned Parenthood and its partners in the biomedical procurement industry, contributed in a big way to America’s view into the horrors of abortion.

Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, told Breitbart News,  the pro-life movement is “winning.”

“We are winning because of dynamics the other side can do nothing about,” he explained.

“You cannot remove the stigma from abortion,” Pavone continued. “It is so offensive to human nature, that any attempt to make it seem good, though it may be temporarily successful, will never last. No lie can live forever.”

He added the experiences of women who have been devastated by their abortions, including those in the Silent No More campaign, “cannot be contradicted.”

Finally, Pavone said, “Young people are abortion survivors and they know it.”

“This is why they fight for the unborn – because they know that they are also speaking up for themselves,” he asserted. “Indeed, we are winning. And we must soon add to these dynamics the re-election of President Donald Trump and a Republican Senate and House.”

The election of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in 2016 saw a dramatic shift to a White House that was now undeniably pro-life.

Evangelist Dr. Alveda King, who heads Civil Rights for the Unborn, told Breitbart News, under Trump, “the victories in the pro-life movement are amazing and astounding.”

“Thanks be to God!” she exclaimed. “We are getting closer and closer to valuing the sanctity of life from the womb to the tomb. Legislation follows prayers and transformation of hearts.”

The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), agreed the Trump administration has been critical for the pro-life movement.

The organization just celebrated the Trump administration’s release of a final rule that enforces the requirement for insurers selling Obamacare plans that cover elective abortion to collect a separate payment from enrollees for that coverage. The rule, like the Title X family planning fund rule that bars those who provide or refer for abortions from receiving federal funds, underscores that abortion is neither health care nor family planning.

“Obamacare was the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded abortion since Roe v. Wade, dramatically increasing abortion funding by subsidizing plans that cover abortion on demand,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a press statement. She added:

Making this dramatic expansion even more onerous, the Obama administration allowed insurers to ignore the law by burying the abortion surcharge in plan documents instead of collecting it separately. This new rule will ensure compliance so that “separate” no longer means “together” when it comes to funding abortion. President Trump has delivered an important victory for American consumers and taxpayers, the majority of whom oppose using tax dollars to pay for abortions.

Before the Trump administration, however, there was the Tea Party.

BuzzFeed reported that Tom McCluskey, vice president of government affairs for the March for Life, said it was the Tea Party movement that shook up Washington at the start of the decade and let the establishment know pro-life Americans were tired of the laissez faire attitude about abortion.

“I spoke at some massive Tea Party rallies at the time, and I was the only one talking about the life issue, and the crowd went wild,” McClusky said. “The Tea Party was the first national voice of frustration the pro-life movement has ever had … and it’s shaped the party today.”

Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, agreed this decade now “marks a turning point in the pro-life movement, as events have illustrated the weakness of Roe v. Wade, which was a hijacking of the abortion issue by the Supreme Court,” she told Breitbart News.

Hawkins, who heads the nation’s largest organization of pro-life youth, said her group is preparing for “a post-Roe world” where supports are in place for young women in unplanned pregnancies so they will not turn to abortion as a remedy.

“To get ready for a post-Roe world, the pro-life generation has been developing legislation, passing laws, and beefing up the support system for women and their children – born and preborn,” she explained.

Hawkins noted the confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees and those of over 150 federal judges has been a major boost to the pro-life movement.

“The 2020 election is critical in choosing who will have the authority to appoint the next round of judges and address a predatory abortion industry that is adept at accessing scarce taxpayer resources,” she said. “This generation will see a dramatic shift for life in the years ahead, if we can stand together now.”

Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life, said the shift for life is real, particularly among young people.

“It’s true that there have been many pro-life gains in the last decade, and the reason for that is because Americans, especially young Americans, are becoming more pro-life,” she said in a statement to Breitbart News. “We see this firsthand every year at the March for Life, and public opinion polling confirms it: three in four Americans want abortion limited to – at most – the first three months of pregnancy.”

Mancini underscored the pro-life movement has more work to do.

Still, “the beauty and dignity of every life is transforming America and touching hearts,” she said. “We look forward to the day when abortion is unthinkable.”

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