AMAC Exclusive – By Seamus Brennan
Nine months after the release of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the 50-year reign of a Supreme Court-recognized right to abortion, the left’s nihilistic predictions about the impacts of the ruling have been debunked and discredited.
After Dobbs, the left emphatically insisted that more restrictions on elective abortions would only serve to increase the frequency of the practice. “Banning abortion is never going to stop abortion,” tweeted Katie Hobbs, the now-Governor of Arizona. “[T]he abortion bans we’re seeing… aren’t just ineffective, they’re harmful & dangerous.”
The Center for American Progress, a far-left think tank, echoed Hobbs’s sentiment. When abortion is banned nationwide, the group claimed, “the overall number of maternal deaths [will] rise by 24 percent.”
But data shows that, post-Dobbs, the number of abortions is indeed on the decline as state lawmakers move to protect life.
Earlier this year, it was reported that abortions in Texas—which has banned most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected—plummeted by an astounding 99 percent following the Dobbs ruling.
In August of 2022, the latest month for which data is available, just three abortions took place in the Lone Star State, “all of which were ‘medically necessary,’ according to statistics from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission,” Fox News reported. “Compared with the 2,596 abortions recorded in the state in June 2022, the number in August represents a decrease of nearly 99%.”
Although these statistics fail to account for illegal or otherwise unreported abortions, the pro-life group Texas Right to Life has estimated that more than 5,000 unborn lives were saved in Texas last August—a testament to the efficacy of abortion bans and a remarkable achievement for those who champion the pro-life cause.
The trend of reduced abortion rates was further validated in a fall 2022 report published by the left-wing Society of Family Planning (SFP), which found that abortions have declined at a rate of about six percent nationally since Dobbs.
Even if the report’s numbers are to be taken at face value, a six percent drop in the nation’s abortion rate from 2020 numbers (the last year for which data is available) would equate to nearly 56,000 lives saved.
But as Catholic University professor Michael J. New noted, the data used in the analysis was retrieved directly from abortion providers rather than state health departments or government agencies—indicating that the actual figure could be significantly higher.
Additionally, as New writes, not only were several red states enforcing strong pro-life laws prior to the Dobbs decision the study also “fails to take into account that abortion numbers were already increasing in many politically liberal states” due to the easing of abortion restrictions in deep blue havens like Illinois and New York.
In short, Katie Hobbs and the pro-abortion activist mob were wrong—and abortion bans are indeed effective at saving unborn lives.
As such, pro-life advocates should remain encouraged and continue charting the path to cast out abortion on the state and local levels.
In addition to Texas—which has led the charge in the post-Roe fight to end abortion on the state level with its 2021 Texas Heartbeat Act—a plethora of other states have staked ground in the next phase of pro-life legal initiatives. Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, and Tennessee have implemented near-total bans on abortion, while Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia have also imposed bans, which are currently undergoing legal challenges.
Furthermore, North Dakota’s only abortion clinic departed the state, rendering the elective abortions completely unavailable. In Wisconsin, elective abortions are also currently unavailable entirely, although legal challenges are pending in state court.
Arizona, Florida, Georgia, and Utah have implemented looser abortion restrictions—banning the practice after particular points in pregnancy—while bans imposed by other states like Indiana, Wyoming, and Ohio are currently blocked by state courts, but could be placed into effect in the near future.
As Catholic Bishop Robert Barron wrote several years ago, “In 1850, lots of good and thoughtful people defended the institution of slavery. Now, only insane people would.”
Today, he continued, “lots of decent and thoughtful people defend the pro-choice position. One can only hope that these recent [pro-life developments] will hasten the day when only insane people would.”
Pro-life advocates have long recognized that the end of Roe v. Wade would not by any means mark the end of the battle to dismantle the abortion regime and defend innocent life.
Instead, the fight to restore the right to life in America’s culture and courtrooms is only just beginning—and demands a new slate of fresh and exciting ideas, policy initiatives, and legal strategies as the conservative movement enters into the next chapter of pro-life activism.
