A possible U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Dobbs that overturns Roe v. Wade cannot come soon enough. The Arizona Department of Health Services abortion report for 2020 spells out every life lost and every woman harmed by the lies peddled by the abortion industry.

The number of Arizona women who had an abortion in 2020 increased slightly from the previous year; from 13,003 in 2019, to 13,186 in 2020. That’s 13,186 Arizona citizens that never drew a breath.

The ratio of abortions to live births in Arizona increased from 164 to 172 during the same time period. Still, the 2020 ratio is lower than the highest ratio in 2011.

Of particular interest is the percentage of women taking the abortion pill compared to those having a surgical abortion. That number jumped just over 10%. Now, half of abortions in Arizona are done from a distance, leaving women to go through the traumatic ordeal alone and at greater risk to themselves. It’s the first year the use of the abortion pill outnumbered surgical abortions.

The abortion industry has been promoting the use of the abortion pill over surgical abortions to save money and circumvent commonsense safety precautions. But statistics show the abortion pill is more dangerous than a surgical abortion, putting women at four times the risk of complications than surgical abortions.

Women who take the abortion pill can suffer serious hemorrhaging, infections, and deadly ectopic pregnancies, among other complications. But the abortion industry is laser focused on the bottom line.

Other relevant data reported

The majority of women getting abortions are between 20-29 years of age (58%).

Most abortions occurred between 0-8 weeks gestation (64.2%), but hundreds of lives were lost much later in development, when the unborn child had already developed organs, the heart was already pumping blood, and he or she had fingers and toes.

Gestational age when aborted:

0-8 weeks (64.2%)

9-13 weeks (27%)

14-15 weeks (4%)

16-17 weeks (1.6%)

18-20 weeks (1.9%)

21 weeks + (1.3%)

Lest anyone think the 1.9 % or 1.3% are minimal, consider that equates to 426 unborn babies developed enough to hear mom, suck his/her thumb, hiccup; the brain, spinal cord and other organs are developing; the mother can feel baby moving inside her womb, and those at 21 weeks or later may very well had been able to live outside the womb.

Doctors reported nine (9) incidents of babies born alive during an attempted abortion. A CAP-supported a law requires medical care for such babies, and the report indicates the doctors filed a statement of measures taken to preserve the life of the unborn baby, but it doesn’t give details of that care or the outcome.

The good news is Arizona’s abortion numbers are relatively low considering the population growth. We have an additional 760,000 residents since 2011. Yet, there were 420 fewer abortions in 2020 than nine years prior.

This can be attributed, at least in part, to the good work of the pregnancy resource centers that have been critical in reaching and serving women facing unplanned pregnancies.

Don’t be fooled

As abortion continues to dominate the headlines and American conversation, abortion activists are touting polling they say indicates 7 in 10 Americans support Roe v. Wade and don’t want it overturned. But they mislead because a plurality of Americans also say they support state control of abortion laws.  Many don’t understand that overturning Roe does just that – it gives states control of abortion laws.

Polling also shows current abortion law is incredibly unpopular, with only 13% supporting elective abortions in the third trimester.

And a Marist poll from earlier this year found that about three-quarters of Americans, a huge majority, want either:

• abortion limited to the first trimester (25%)
• abortion limited to only rare cases, including to save the life of the mother (39%)
• or abortion be entirely illegal (12%)

Another poll shows a slight majority of Americans oppose overturning Roe, but when respondents learn Roe allows late term abortions, a greater majority (56%) support either overturning Roe or limiting abortions to 15 weeks.

Roe makes it impossible to carry out the will of the people because it forbids the kind of regulations on abortion that polls show Americans want – a large majority want strict limits on abortion and a plurality want states to have control. Overturning Roe will allow for both.

If you missed last week’s Five Minutes for Families’ analysis of the Dobbs case (which challenges Roe) before the U.S. Supreme Court, read it here.

ICYMI

• Watch Cathi take on Planned Parenthood on Sunday Square Off here and here.
• The U.S. Supreme Court this week heard arguments in an important religious freedom case. Read about it
• Read here about a Virginia library’s holiday reading display that included pedophilia and obscene material, and featured it alongside the Bible.
• Read here about a biological male smashing swim records on a female college team, and the fallout from unfair play.

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