January 17, 2013
Column #1,638
40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade
By Mike McManus

Last week’s TIME cover story headlined: “40 Years Ago, Abortion Rights Activists Won an Epic Victory with Roe v. Wade. They’ve Been Losing Ever Since.”

Most stories about the 40th anniversary on Tuesday report that 53.8 million babies were killed in their womb. That far understates the actual number. By 1988, there had been 22 million abortions. Had those babies been born, they would be 24-39 years old today. About 5.2 million would have married and had 10.8 million babies. Another 2 million babies would have been born out of wedlock.

So there really is a total of 66.7 million “invisible infants,” according to a website, InvistibleInfants.org, created by Marco Ciavolino, a computer consultant. This is a stupendous number – about equal to the 2011 population of New York, Los Angeles and 134 of America’s largest cities – or the population of IL, IN, OH, MI, WI, IA, KS, MN, MO, NE plus ND and SD.

Experts estimate that there are two drug-induced abortions for every surgery, the “morning after pill.” So the actual number of abortions is far worse.

The 76 million Baby Boomers only had 49 million children. No wonder they have trouble selling their houses and downsizing! If those couples had the usual 2.1 children each, they would have had 80 million children. There would be no housing slump.

Abortion has thus caused a huge hole in the economy. We have crippled ourselves.

Had the invisible infants been born, and earned average wages, the economy would have $5.8 Trillion more income, about 41% of America’s Gross National Product. They would have paid $1.5 Trillion in taxes. Federal and state budget deficits would almost disappear.

Abortion is why America has not bounced back from this last recession!

The good news, however, is that in the last few years, states have passed more than 90 laws that are reducing the number of abortions.

Georgia became the seventh state to enact a “fetal pain” law that will reduce by six weeks the time a woman can get an abortion. It is based on the controversial scientific evidence that a baby in the womb can feel pain by the 20th week of gestation, four months before its birth. Nebraska was the first to pass a fetal pain bill in 2010, which was quickly followed by ID, IN, KS, OK, AL, OH and GA.

About 10 states have passed laws to limit public funding of Planned Parenthood, which performed 334,000 abortions in a recent year. For example, Texas trimmed $16 million from America’s largest abortion provider and New Jersey cut $7.5 million. Among others doing so are FL, IN, KS, NH, NC, TN and WI. However, courts have blocked these actions.

By contrast, courts are upholding pro-life laws involving ultrasound, which allows a pregnant woman to see her baby in her womb. “We had a tremendous victory in the Fifth Federal Circuit Court of Appeals,” said Charmaine Yoest, President of Americans United for Life. “It not only upheld sonograms, but called them the `gold standard of informed consent.’”

Georgia was the tenth state to pass an ultrasound bill in 2007. However, abortionists in that state are not required to offer all women that opportunity to see the baby, and the number of abortions actually grew from 31,000 in 2007 to 35,600 in 2010.

By contrast, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana and Mississippi all require abortionists to offer the opportunity to view the ultrasound. Result: their abortions are dropping. Florida’s fell from 103,000 in 2000 to 94,400, and they dropped by a tenth in KS, AL and by a quarter in MS.

In fact, five states have only one abortion clinic in the entire state: AR, MS, ND, SD and WY.

Another restriction passed by 34 states is that parents be notified that their minor child is getting an abortion. More restrictive states require the consent of parents.

The result? Teen abortions fell by nearly 50% since 1990, from 364,000 to 196,000. Why? Teenagers don’t want their parents to know they are sexually active. That prospect is so devastating that fewer teens are sexually active or more are practicing birth control, which is remarkable given the increased promiscuity of the culture.

That leaves me with a question. Given the horror of killing one’s baby, why are there 1,140,000 abortions? Why aren’t more women chaste – or at least practicing birth control?

Abortion is not just another “choice.” Doug Bandow calls it a “flight from responsibility” from the earlier choice to have sex, or without protection.

Abortion is the leading way to avoid taking responsibility for the life created.