According to the latest statistics, abortion numbers continue to decline across the country. That’s good news. The pro-life message is continuing to win hearts and minds, but our work is not finished. Abortion businesses like Planned Parenthood keep expanding and are using increasingly deceptive means to infiltrate communities. That’s why Alive 2020 is so important.
In the last year, Planned Parenthood has opened up two new mega abortion facilities and is in the process of building two more. One facility is in Fairview Heights, Illinois, across the river from St. Louis Missouri. The clinic was built in completely secrecy from the community and even from work crews. The purpose was to avoid pro-life protestors and interference from concerned community members. The whole cloak and dagger operation even had a code name, Alaska.
While Planned Parenthood may think that this effort shows a new level of cleverness, Abby Johnson, a former clinic manager for the organization, had a different interpretation. She believes that the abortion business, in many ways, is acting out of a place of fear as pro-life legislation and sentiment grows.
“They’re scared,” Abby Johnson said in an interview with The Daily Citizen. “I think that they’re scared that this effort they’ve made to destigmatize abortion is moving backwards. And that really gets them fired up.”
That’s why an event like Alive 2020 is so critical. It shows men, women and children across the country that a preborn baby is fully human, regardless of their stage of development, and worthy of protection.
Abby knows a bit about that as well. For those that were part of the Alive from New York event saw an image of Abby’s preborn baby son firsthand. Well, from the womb anyways. Now Fulton is about five months old now and he has become a bit of a mini celebrity.
“It’s neat for people because when I post pictures of him or talk about him,” Abby said. “People will say, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s the baby we heard, right? That’s the baby’s face that we saw.’ I think it’s neat for people to put the two together, even pro-life people. Just to be able to catch a glimpse of a child in the womb and then to see this big debut. It’s special to people all around the world that got to see him.”
Sadly, too many babies still don’t have the opportunity to make their own special debut. For Alive 2020, Focus on the Family deliberately sought to set up in cities and states across the country with high abortion rates.
An Alive 2020 event will be held in South Florida, where the state’s abortion rate remains one of the highest in the nation. According to the Abortion Surveillance report compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2018, there were 72,023 abortions in the state. That’s a rate of 19.3, second highest in the nation behind New York. The abortion rate is determined by the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years.
The rest of the states on the tour aren’t much better. Georgia, where a heartbeat bill was introduced earlier this year that would limit abortion to the first six weeks of pregnancy, the rate remains at a surprisingly high 14.6. Sadly, this rate has been increasing over the years. In Illinois, the state where Planned Parenthood just opened a new 18,000 square foot facility, the abortion rate is 15.5. Texas has a rate of just 9.4.
In recent years, Chicago, Illinois has become a haven for those seeking an abortion. The Midwest Access Coalition is a Chicago based nonprofit which helps women access abortion in the state by helping with travel, lodging, food and transportation. There is also the Chicago Abortion Fund, which helps low-income women pay for their abortion.
Of course, at the end of the day, California remains the biggest question mark when it comes to abortion statistics. The state does not report any of its data to the CDC and hasn’t for years. According to the Guttmacher Institute, the pro-abortion think tank, California completed 132,680 abortions in 2017. To compare, Texas only had 54,194 abortions in 2015 (the last year of the CDC report). That’s a rate of 16.4, as reported by Guttmacher.
Overall, abortion rates are going down. That’s great news, but the abortion industry hasn’t given up the fight. That’s why it is so important to continue sharing the pro-life message with communities across the country.
Alive 2020 will be in South Florida, Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago and Southern California on May 9th. If you want to make a stand for life, consider attending at any location and invite your friends and family members to attend as well.
