Almost 42 million abortions performed in 2018; more deaths than from cancer, AIDS, traffic accidents
There were approximately 41.95 million abortions carried out around the world in 2018, an organization that tracks death statistics reported.
Christian Daily Reporter was one of a number of websites to note the statistics on Worldometers on December 31, which issues live tallies on global births and deaths, based on statistics published by the World Health Organization.
The website, which is now displaying the statistics for 2019, said that 8.2 million people died from cancer in 2018, while there were 1.7 million victims of HIV/AIDS.
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Overall, the deaths by abortion outnumbered those from cancer, malaria, HIV/AIDS, smoking, alcohol, and traffic accidents put together.
Worldometers explains that it tracks numbers based on induced abortion of human pregnancy, which is different from spontaneous abortions, which are classified as miscarriages.
Explaining why it uses live counters, it says:
“When using static numbers to describe numerical change through time, we fail to provide a sense of the relationship between the magnitude of change and the flow of time, which is how we experience change in real life.”
“What static numbers fail to provide is the perception of the frequency and timing of events, the rhythm, an essential part of nature and a tool for understanding the physical phenomena surrounding us,” it adds.
“Only by employing live counters we are able to convey these elements and truly grasp the magnitude of the quantitative change through time.”
In the U.S., the abortion rate has been on a decline, and based on the latest statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it hit a historic low in 2015.
A report from November found that 638,169 abortions were reported from 49 states for 2015. While women in their 20s had the highest abortion rates, namely 31.1 percent for those aged 20-24. There was a major drop when it comes to teenage abortions. Teenagers aged 15-19 accounted for 9.8 percent of all reported abortions in the country in 2015, down from the 41 percent number in 2006.
“That is due, in a significant way, to pro-life legislation that seeks to provide life-affirming solutions to abortion, combined with pro-life efforts that educate Americans about the effects of abortion and the humanity of the unborn child," argued Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee.
Others, such as Rachel Jones, research scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, positioned that the increased use of contraceptives can be credited.
"Affordable access to the full range of contraception and family planning options is critical for people deciding if and when they’d like to become parents, develop their careers, plan for their futures and manage their health,” Jones said.
The live abortion tracker on Worldometers reports that there have been 165,000 global abortions as of Wednesday morning, the second day of the New Year.
