Abortion Rates Fall to All-Time Low in North America and Europe. More Babies Saved From Abortion

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 12, 2016   |   10:14AM   |   Washington, DC

The United States is not the only place where abortion rates are dropping steadily. New research published this week found that a smaller percentage of women across the world are ending their unborn babies’ lives in abortions, Reuters reported.

The statistics, compiled by the World Health Organization and the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute and published in The Lancet, showed a staggering 56 million unborn babies are aborted every year across the world.

Because of population growth, the number of abortions rose across the globe, from 50.4 million per year in 1990–94 to 56.3 million per year in 2010–14, according to the report.

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However, the data also indicated that a smaller percentage of women are having abortions. Wealthier countries saw the most significant drop, with abortions falling from 46 per 1,000 women of childbearing age to 27 per 1,000, according to the report. Poorer countries saw a smaller drop from 39 abortions per 1,000 women to 37 per 1,000. The continent with the largest drop was Europe, falling a full 79 percent, according to the report.

Overall, the global abortion rate is estimated at 35 abortions annually per every 1,000 women of childbearing age between 2010-2014, down from 40 per 1,000 in the 1990s, according to the report. That means about one in four pregnancies across the world end in abortion, CBS reported.

The pro-abortion research group attributed the drop to increased access to contraception. They also pointed out that the abortion rate in countries where abortion is illegal is little different than in countries where it is.

“When contraceptives aren’t available, women use abortion, even if it isn’t legally sanctioned and even if it puts them at great physical risk,” Diana Greene Foster, an associate professor at University of California San Francisco, told the pro-abortion website Vox. “When contraceptives are more available, use of abortion declines.”

How reliable this assertion is, however, is uncertain. Pro-life researchers and scientists sometimes question Guttmacher’s research methods because of its pro-abortion agenda. Guttmacher is the former research arm of Planned Parenthood. In the past it has been accused of inflating illegal abortion numbers in an attempt to discredit pro-life efforts.

One interesting thing to note is that the news reports and study summary do not mention Asia. China has the highest abortion rates in the world, but it is unknown how many of them are forced or coerced because of the country’s brutal one child policy.

In the United States, abortions are dropping to historic lows. In November, the Centers for Disease Control reported approximately 699,000 babies lost their lives in abortions in 2012, a decline of about half since the highs of more than 1.5 million in the late 1980s.

At their high decades ago, approximately 1 in 3 pregnancies ended in an abortion in the U.S. — resulting in brochures, banners and billboards proclaiming that fact and greying out every third baby displayed in pictures of newborn children. Thanks to pro-life laws, educational efforts, pregnancy centers and the actions of pro-life groups that have resulted in closing down abortion clinics, now just one in five pregnancies in the United States end in an abortion.

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