Abortions Drop 21% in Alabama, 2,200 Babies Saved From Abortions as More Clinics Close

State   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 17, 2016   |   1:06PM   |   Montgomery, Alabama

Pro-life efforts in Alabama are making a huge difference for unborn babies and their moms across the state. A new report found abortions dropped 21 percent in Alabama in just four years.

The Alabama Media Group reports the new numbers from the state Department of Public Health. In 2014, there were 8,080 abortions in Alabama, a 21 percent drop from the 10,280 abortions in 2010, according to the state. That means 2,200 fewer babies were aborted in just the past four years. According to the report, Alabama’s abortion rate is much lower than the national average with 12 percent of pregnancies ending in abortion, compared to 18 percent of pregnancies nationwide.

The Rev. James Henderson, former executive director of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, was encouraged to hear the news and took it as a sign that pro-lifers are making a difference.

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“According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, our pro-life efforts were the reason [Planned Parenthood] left Huntsville,” Henderson told the news outlet. “In this city, we’ve seen five closures. We’d like to see all of them close.”

According to the report, there were 12 abortion clinics in 2001 in Alabama, and now there are five. More abortion facilities could close, too, when a new law goes into effect.

Signed by Gov. Robert Bentley on May 12, the law bans abortion facilities from building within 2,000 feet of public elementary or middle schools and prohibits the state health department from issuing or renewing a health center license to current abortion clinics within the same distance of the schools, LifeNews reported. The legislation could close the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives Services (AWCRA) in Huntsville or at least force it to move. The facility aborted 1,108 unborn babies in 2014, according to the state report.

Abortion advocates already announced plans to fight the new law in court. ACLU Alabama Executive Director Susan Watson previously called the bill an attack on “the health and well-being of Alabama women.” She said it would be ACLU’s fourth lawsuit against the state in three years, AL.com reports.

Henderson said pro-life sidewalk counseling outside of abortion facilities is making a difference. Pro-life laws enacted in the past few years also appear to be saving unborn babies’ lives.

Enacted in 2013, the Alabama Women’s Health and Safety Act requires abortion clinics to meet basic health and safety standards, similar to those required for other outpatient surgical facilities, LifeNews reported. Legislators passed the new health protections after hearing reports of botched abortions at several abortion facilities in the state. One was a Planned Parenthood clinic in Birmingham that faced a lawsuit in 2012 for negligence for a botched abortion that left a woman unable to have children. Another abortion clinic was closed after botched abortions and women were injured at the New Women All Women abortion clinic in South Birmingham.

However, in 2015, a judge blocked a state law requiring that abortionists have hospital admitting privileges. The law could have closed the state’s most popular abortion facility – the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa. The facility aborted 4,725 unborn babies in 2014, more than any other facility, according to the state.

Last week, Gov. Bentley also signed a ban on brutal dismemberment abortions that tear unborn babies limb from limb, LifeNews reported. This new law has the potential to save even more unborn babies from abortion in the years to come.

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