120,000 Babies Could Be Saved From Abortion in Just the First Year After Roe v. Wade is Overturned

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Nov 22, 2021   |   11:33AM   |   Washington, DC

Overturning Roe v. Wade will stop abortions and save babies’ lives, and even abortion activists openly admit it.

In an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, a group of 154 prominent economists and researchers estimated that abortion numbers would drop by about 120,000 in the first year and potentially even more in subsequent years if the high court overturns Roe and allows states to ban abortions again, the AP reports.

The economists filed the brief arguing in favor of Roe and legalized abortion on demand. Theirs is one of many amicus briefs addressing a major abortion case out of Mississippi that the Supreme Court plans to hear on Dec. 1.

That case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, involves a 2018 law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy and the question of “whether all pre-viability prohibitions on elective abortion are unconstitutional.” Currently, under Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, states are prohibited from protecting unborn babies from abortion before viability, about 22 weeks of pregnancy.

Pro-life advocates and abortion activists both anticipate that the conservative-majority court may weaken Roe v. Wade or overturn it altogether through the Mississippi case. And if it does, babies will be spared from violent abortion deaths.

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The economists predicted that about 23 states would make abortions illegal if the court limits or overturns Roe, according to their brief. They predicted that this would result in a 14-percent drop in the abortion rate the first year, or about 120,000 fewer women getting abortions.

While they noted that some of these women may try to attempt abortions on their own, “recent studies show that the majority of women who are prevented from reaching an abortion provider due to travel distance give birth as a result.”

Even if the Supreme Court rules more narrowly on the case, tens of thousands of babies’ lives still could be spared every year.

According to the AP:

If the court simply upholds Mississippi’s ban, other Republican-governed states would likely enact similar measures. The Guttmacher Institute says between 6.3% and 7.4% of U.S. abortions, or 54,000 to 63,000 annually, are obtained at or after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

If Roe goes, it is unlikely that abortions would automatically become illegal across the country. Instead, the power to protect unborn babies from abortion or keep abortions legal would return to the states. Estimates vary about the number of states that would ban abortions if allowed to do so. One recent estimate put the number at 21.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court took away the states’ ability to protect unborn babies from abortion under Roe v. Wade, and instead forced states to legalize abortion on demand. Roe made the United States one of only seven countries in the world that allows elective abortions after 20 weeks.

Since Roe, nearly 63 million unborn babies have been legally aborted in the U.S. Polls consistently show that a strong majority of Americans oppose abortions in the second and third trimesters and many support heartbeat laws that protect unborn babies at their earliest stage of life.