If America lost one-third of an entire generation to war, disease, suicide, or gun violence, it would be treated as the greatest tragedy in our nation’s history. But according to a new report, abortion has claimed the lives of that many would-be Gen Zers – and hardly anyone in the political or media establishment has taken note.
As the National Catholic Register reported earlier this month, data from the Guttmacher Institute, the CDC, the United Nations, and the World Health Organization show that some 850–900 million babies were aborted globally between 1997 and 2012, the years generally accepted as the range for Gen-Z.
In the United States alone, more than 63 million children have been aborted since Roe v. Wade legalized the procedure in 1973. That includes 24.5 million millennials and 26 million members of Gen Z, nearly a third of both generations. Pro-life commentator Catherine Hadro calls these missing brothers, sisters, classmates, spouses, and friends the “unseen wound” of abortion: a generational trauma that has left holes in families, communities, and the nation’s future.
This staggering loss has also accelerated America’s rush toward demographic collapse. The U.S. fertility rate remains well below the 2.1 births per woman needed to sustain a population, meaning overall population growth now depends entirely on immigration. In 2023, the fertility rate among native-born women in the United States was about 1.73 births per woman.
Notably, black Americans have been disproportionately affected by the abortion epidemic. In 2019, black babies accounted for 38 percent of abortions despite black women making up only about seven percent of the U.S. population, according to the CDC.
Proponents of abortion will often point to cases of rape, incest, and life-threatening pregnancies to justify the practice. But less than 0.5 percent of abortions stem from incest, less than 1.5 percent are the result of rape, and only about 2.8 percent of abortions are performed for maternal health concerns, according to Encounter Today.
This means that about 95 percent of abortions – 24.7 million Gen-Z babies – were killed by elective abortions.
That reality reflects a much deeper cultural problem that the pro-life movement must confront if it is to prevent one-third of the next generation – or more – from being lost to abortion. While the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson decision may have been the conclusion of the legal battle against Roe v. Wade, it was only the start of a far more difficult societal battle to rebuild a culture of life.
Following Dobbs, blue states retaliated by liberalizing their abortion laws even further, with most now allowing unlimited late-term abortion at any stage of pregnancy for any reason. Even in many red states, pro-abortion ballot initiatives have passed, leaving ostensibly conservative states with more permissive abortion laws than they had pre-Dobbs.
The harrowing truth is that mainstream culture in the United States and most of the Western world views fertility and motherhood as a liability to be managed rather than a blessing to be embraced. As many anti-abortion crusaders have recognized, the pro-life movement, in addition to waging legal battles to protect the rights of the unborn, must also create an atmosphere of compassion, kindness, and generosity toward expectant mothers to empower them to choose life.
The rising prevalence of absent fathers compounds this ongoing struggle. In 1960, 11 percent of kids were living in homes without fathers. By 2020, that figure had more than doubled to 25 percent. Once again, this crisis is particularly damaging for the black community. In 2023, an astonishing 55.4 percent of black kids were living in a single-parent household.
For decades, government programs have reinforced these pressures by incentivizing fatherlessness. The design of welfare benefits often reduced assistance if a father remained in the home, creating perverse incentives that encouraged single-parent households. The unintended result was an epidemic of absent fathers, leaving mothers alone to shoulder both the economic and emotional burden of raising children.
Polling also shows that Gen Z, immersed in pro-abortion messaging from Hollywood and the education system, is more likely to support abortion than older generations. Many in the pro-life community attribute their activism to their faith. As religiosity has declined in the United States, so too has the belief that unborn babies are entitled to the same protections as babies who have already been born.
However, there are some positive developments that preserve hope for a future where more Americans value life and motherhood. Advances in ultrasound technology have made the humanity of the unborn harder to ignore, challenging the “clump of cells” narrative.
Moreover, activists say that when younger Americans become pro-life, they bring their characteristic energy and activism to the cause. For millennials and Gen Zers, abortion is not an abstract political issue. Many have learned that would-be siblings or cousins were aborted, or that they themselves narrowly escaped it.
The loss of a third of a generation is a catastrophe of almost unimaginable scale. America can secure its future only by rebuilding a culture of life – one where mothers are supported, fathers step up, and every child is given a chance to be born.
Sarah Katherine Sisk is a proud Hillsdale College alumna and a master’s student in economics at George Mason University. You can follow her on X @SKSisk76.
And the liberal Marxist Democrats call it health care. The day will come when it will be deemed genocide as it should be.
Tragic, think about it 63 million Americans were murdered, by people already born, they had a choice, the Un-Born did not!
What a barbaric act!
God Save Mankind!
Well spoken, Sarah.
There is an organization called Preborn that provides ultrasounds to young expectant mothers, free of charge. They are very successful in getting them to choose life over abortion.
Please consider supporting them with a small monthly donation.
This must absolutely break God’s heart – I know it breaks mine!
“Tragic” doesn’t begin to describe my emotions in relation to this news. Murder of the Innocents is a more realistic description.
How about some morality training at home and in the church. Fornication and adultery are sins in the eyes of a Holy God right up there with murder. Abstain from sex until marriage then only with your wife or husband.
Too many younger women use abortion as a way of birth control. I have seen many interviews where they say they have had more than one abortion, and would continue to have more. There are 2 many ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies rather than abortion. Too many abortions on a woman will eventually make it unable to carry a child. No one tells them that information. Many will realize when it’s too late.
There are always consequences to our actions. Good thought provoking article. Thank you
Once again, you have said what needs saying more succinctly and directly than it has ever been said before. We need to hear this message again and again until we have fully acknowledged the loss for all of us… and its staggering and tragic implications… Thank you, Sarah Katherine!
What a sad idea that a child can be killed just for one’s convenience!
Wow! That’s a powerful way to state the loss of so many unborn humans! I just yesterday read a news report about a pregnant 17 year-old girl who was shot in the head in a fit of road rage. She wasn’t driving, but she won’t survive. The family and medical personnel have managed to save the baby, who is two months early. I can’t help but wonder how some people put so much value on human life, while others see fit to throw it away…
This reality should create a shockwave through the country. But it won’t. The hatred by the pro abortion crowd for life is beyond the pale. The same way they hate republicans, MAGA supporters and president Trump. They want to repopulate America with migrants. They can then control the populace forever. Euthanasia will be next. No wonder the COVID experiment didn’t have the results they wanted. The deaths with COVID was peanuts compared to abortion. We saw them after the Dobson decision screaming about abortion like it was the holy grail. Will this question ever be resolved? Will humanity and empathy and love ever return to the woke?
It has always been a mystery to me why we have so many abortions. There are many forms of birth control and they are very effective. Insurance plans must provide free birth control, so why don’t people use it? Planned Parenthood also provides birth control for those who do not have insurance or are low-income. Are women simply using abortion as a form of birth control? If so, why??? If you are going to be sexually active and do not want a pregnancy, use birth control!!
Boy, does this planet need a “Come-to-Jesus meeting”!
I guess the censor here didn’t like my mentioning that the libs’ favorite person, Margaret Sanger, started most of this by wanting to get rid of “human weeds” [her term] like blacks and Christians. I’ll try again!
Want to piss off a liberal? Tell a very liberal grandmother(my mother) one of her grandchildren is pregnant with her great grandbaby. While oohing and aahing over a 3 month sonogram, about how it looks just like a little baby, I couldn’t resist saying “I thought you believed in abortion, so how would you feel about killing that baby you’re looking at”. Talk about a liberal coming unglued, they hate being reminded about how they support murdering unborn children for convenience, just so you don’t have to raise them or go through being pregnant. They tried to remind me about the two children I had with ladies I was not married to at the time, so I had to say, well I didn’t even think about killing them, I ended up marrying their mothers. My mother has gone so far to say that I would have been better off when I was 19 if my girlfriend had gotten an abortion, her first grandchild that she loved very much. Not once did I even consider abortion to end a surprise unplanned pregnancy. Not once did either of my ex-wives bring it up either. I accepted that God had decided I was going to be a father whether I wanted to or not. Killing a child to get out of being pregnant, has to be a really horrible sin in God’s eyes, I would think. The price those women or men and women if the man was involved in the abortion will be steep, for the rest of their lives they have to live with that on their conscious, then what God does with their souls after, who knows how bad. Getting an abortion is no different than killing a born, helpless, defenseless person because you don’t want to deal with being a parent. Basically they are killing someone to negate an act of God. A woman will not get pregnant unless God wants her to.
Eugenics. Popular during WWII, the Democrats keep it going. . . Planned Parenthood, etc.
People who don’t have children will have no grandchildren. As one of my mother’s friends stated, “You have to have grandchildren. Who else will love you when you’re old and ugly?”
After reading Sarah Katherine’s excellent piece…..it’s hard to imagine that the Democrat party still thinks we should kill even more babies!
I Wonder how this same party feels about unborn puppies or kittens….??? Yet Human babies are throw away “mistakes.”
Dark. Very dark.
Looks like Margaret Sanger, the eugenics queen, who wanted to stop black lies from being born (so she located her “clinics” in black neighborhoods, has won her battle. This is a great evil.
Of course this is a terrible thing to recognize but HOW does the author plan to begin “rebuilding a culture of life – one where mothers are supported, fathers step up and every child has a chance of being born”? Our society has descended to the point where sex is simply a casual act, “hookingup”, sort of like a hand shake used to be. Unprotected sex (I’m assuming all the 95% of elective abortions were done on women who knew where babies came from) is not seen as a risk or problem and people who DO have committed relationships don’t see marriage as a necessity any longer. If the author has a magic wand and can wave people back into being responsible for their own actions, let me know and I’ll be the first in like to support her. In America you can face legal action for killing a baby seal, for killing a baby eagle or some othe protected form of wildlife. To kill a human baby seems now to be a “right” that woman can exercise. My Body, My Choice! Go figure.
I like this charity, Pre-Born, it really shows new mothers their baby, through ultra sound. It saves the life of the baby and also possibly the mother’s. Also provides other help for the young mom to be. We need to be serious about the choosing of life.
Well written, excellent facts presented. I appreciate your work and message. How a culture treats the least among us determines its fate. The course we are now on is poisonous and if unchecked it will destroy us as a nation. The time has come for us to treat abortion as the anathema it is. Totally analogous to the abolition of slavery, this evil must be abolished as well. Bruce Sabatino, MD Monroe, GA literally suicide for what i
Now compare this to the tragedy of the holocaust of WWII, 6 million Jews, 10 million Russians, etc.
We mourn the loss because we see the bodies, the extermination camps, etc.
Abortion is still the murder of innocents just hidden behind closed doors and all the lies that the aren’t human. It’s a horrible tragedy!! Beyond comprehension!!
Appalling and heartbreaking. Oprah applauds abortion while praising her own mother for not aborting herself. How twisted is that thought process?!?
Sarah Katherine Sisk, you are a treasure!
One abortion is too many!
I don’t know how anyone can call themselves a Christian and then support abortion. Shame on them!
these people are EVIL
My article about 30 years old, “Contracepting Social Security” shows how contraception and abortion have doomed Social Security to insolvency. Interestingly, too, for a decade the slots public representatives (2 people) on the Social Security Trust Fund board have been vacant. That’s something Trump and the Senate can easily fix.
As Ronald Reagan once said ” I’ve noticed that everyone who is pro abortion has already been born.”
There also is a free ultrasound bus, called “Save The Storks”. It is in most States. savethestorks.com
So, some religioius practices, messages, traditions and behaviors do have a beneficial effect upon the morals and standards of a society, as per the thoughts of our founding fathers. The culprits underlying the travesties of faulty personal relationships can be identified in declining respect for families, ideological indoctrination in educational systems—bottom to top–activist agitators who are ever-present advocating for anti-American, anti-social behaviors and the politicians and bureaucrats who create permissions and rules which encourage division among significant publicly-defined groups. So many aborted births are the results and statistics which indicate America is on a terminal track.
Abortion Genocide proof Today
it is heart breaking, but not surprising, we hear and see that the value of life does not matter, People wonder why the school shooting we have seen for many years now have been committed by trans people, they hate children, so do many on the left. Reason because children are the closest thing to Gods Love, Gods Gift of Love, when you know your doing something against God, your unable to stop, don’t care to Stop that behavior, you want to Blame God. Gods gift of Love is children. It is a mental illness!, but it is also a diet fed to them of hate and evil by the MSM and those who condone it.
I remember in the 1970’s shortly after I married, I asked the advice of a priest, about birth control. During the conversation, he predicted that “one day” pregnancy and the gift of life will be treated like a disease. Reality struck.
I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing.
It’s just Gen Z.
As God looks down on us I wonder, how could he love, in any way, a nation, a world, that would take the lives of so many children? Children are considered a blessing from God says the psalms. Yet mankind, out of selfish interest, destroys so many. Such a wickedness, I don’t understand.
In these days of “free love” abortion is considered the new birth control.
In a frenzy of lust, this generation just figures that if they get pregnant, they can get an abortion and their problem is solved.
Non of these immoral individuals ever considers what an abortion really is. The doctors go in with a forceps like tool and rip the baby out piece by piece. Is there even anything that is humane about that? That was a tiny human child that you just macerated with no thought or guilt about what you just did. To me, that’s murder!!
It’s about time this generation z started taking responsibility for their actions. You want to screw around? Use birth control. You can find it in any drug store. Men stock up on condoms and women get on the pill or have a doctor insert an IUD.
There is no excuse for an “unwanted pregnancy”. The only excuse for an abortion is rape, incest or an endangered woman who should not carry a child.
Thank for providing this illuminating perspective on the tragedy and evil of hidden murder.
These people are not going to get away with this, they are going to have to answer someday to the Lord of their actions and I certainly wouldn’t want to be them. It’s a terrible thing how people think that that is not murdering an innocent soul just so they can have their party life. It’s right from the spawn of Satan.
Why can’t anyone get the freaking dates right for Gen Z? Baby Boomers are 1946-1964. They get 19 years because the Baby Boom was an actual demographic event that took 19 years. Gen X (lame name) is 1965-1982. Millenials are 1983-2000. 2000. Get it? The last generation born in the second millenium. Gen Z (another lame name) is 2001-2018. From now on I’m calling Millenials the “Old Millenials”, last generation of the old millenium, and I’m calling Gen Z the “New Millenials”, first generation of the new millenium. I’m sorry there’s so much math to redo.
And how many of those “should be mothers” now have regrets, leading to mental issues, after they realize they killed a would-be baby…?
Our babies were murdered, PERIOD, by selfish and unfeelint people who believed the lies unGodly Family Planning told them. It is no more a “family planning” organization than it is a “murder planning” organization and God will hold them accountable for sacrificing our babies to “Molech”.
I cry whenever I read an article on this topic. Killing babies! How awful does it have to get before we stop it?
One suggestion: black women are indeed 7% of the US population, and therefore somewhere near 14% of all women. When describing the percentage of abortions among black women, their representation among all women (who I contend are the only component of the population who have abortions) the share of black women among all women in the US is the more appropriate comparison.
Jesus said the kingdom of God is made of such as these little ones. Literally, true.
Abortion is like eating your seed corn. Abortion is one reason why Social Security is running out of money. Fewer paying into the system.
Sarah Katherine Sisk; Great Article – how about doing an article on this – – – Canada has a program, actually a form of euthanasia; it’s called Medical Assistance In Dying (MAID). This permits people to take their life (suicide) before the medical condition (cancer, etc) takes their life naturally. Canada will also, starting in March 17, 2027, permit MAID for cases in which the sole underlying condition is mental illness.
Need to pray for our neighbors to our North.
Matthew 19:14 14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. there is nothing in their tiny minds bigger than the state
And who is promoting the murder and negative pressure?
The Democrats!
Abortion is the “same old” wretched sin of Child Sacrifice that has raised its ugly head repeatedly since ancient times. Yes, it breaks God’s heart, and we MUST start agreeing with God and our own hearts should be broken over it too.
We manufacture the “same old” “Reasons” for engaging in this evil practice:
May God Open our eyes here in America and help us to REPENT of this savagery!