Abortion Victories, #Winning Like Never Before

By Kristan Hawkins, CP Op-Ed Contributor Thursday, January 09, 2014

For 41 years, abortion has been legal in America. With two grossly uninformed decisions in 1973, Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, the Supreme Court laid down some of the most liberal abortion laws in the world, putting the United States on par with North Korea and China.

Yet, the will of the American people is increasingly pro-life. And while the election and re-election of the most pro-abortion President in our nation's history was certainly a negative for our pro-life movement, it has served as a catalyst for pro-life activists nationwide who no longer look to Washington for the justice we seek. And this is being demonstrated right now in your state or the one next to you.

Abortion arguably reached its pinnacle around 1990, when the abortion rate peaked to its highest point since Roe v. Wade. The number of abortion facilities reached an all-time high one year later, in 1991, when there were 2,176 active surgical abortion centers. But today that number has dropped by 73 percent, and the abortion rate has, for the most part, steadily declined since its 1990 peak.

These statistics along with the new report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, which show that the amount of pro-life laws passed in the states in the past three years (2011-2013) has surpassed that of the pro-life successes of the entire preceding decade that (2000-2010). That has the pro-abortion movement scrambling.

And it's no wonder why. The New York Times recently outlined the legislative accomplishments of the pro-life movement in 2013 alone, citing 3 bans on abortions committed past 20 weeks of gestation; 4 abortion restrictions based on the reason for the abortion; 4 amendments to abortion reporting laws; 9 restrictions on abortion providers; 10 limitations on insurance coverage for abortion; 17 limitations on medication abortions; and 23 "other" laws, which include ultrasound requirements, bans on abortion earlier than 20 weeks, etc.

Further, The Huffington Post noted that the number of states with high numbers of major abortion restrictions has jumped from 13 to 27 in just 13 years. On the other hand, the number of states actively supporting abortion expansion is only 13, which is a significant drop since the year 2000.

The abortion movement appears to be breathing its dying breaths, as its sees fewer and fewer abortion facilities, less doctors willing to commit the heinous act, common sense regulating legislation, and ranks that aren't being replenished with younger activists. While now is not quite yet the time to sit back and bask in our successes, it is time for pro-life activists in every state to commit to doing more than ever before to put the final nail in the abortion industry's coffin.

Kristan Hawkins is the President of Students for Life of America, the nation's largest pro-life youth organization with over 700 groups nationwide. She is author of the new book, Courageous: Students Abolishing Abortion in this Lifetime.