After data revealed there could be at least 60,000 fewer abortions nationwide next year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Ford, for life groups States are urged to provide additional assistance to underserved pregnant women and families.
According to new data released Sunday by FiveThirtyEight, in the two months following the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which allowed states to set their own abortion restrictions. New abortion bans in 18 Republican-led states will result in 60,000 fewer abortions in the United States next year, according to data released this week by #WeCount, a subsidiary of the pro-abortion nonprofit Society of Family Planning.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit civil rights law firm that assisted in the Dobbs case, applauded the #WeCount data projection of fewer abortions, but urged Republican states to continue offering programs and incentives to help women who refuse abortions.
“We celebrate fewer abortions, but these reductions are insufficient,” said ADF senior adviser Denise Harle.
Abortion restrictions still insufficient
According to Harle, corporate America and the Biden administration are pushing policies that “promote an agenda supported by the abortion industry,” such as free abortion transportation and leave, while “pro-life states offer real support.”
She cited Mississippi, which enacted a “multimillion-dollar tax credit for donations to pregnancy centers,” and Texas as having an “unprecedented number” of programs to help families dealing with unplanned pregnancies, such as “safe housing, transportation, food, clothing and health care.”
“As we move further into a post-Roe America,” Harle added, “the states and their citizens will become stronger and make abortion unthinkable.”
“Live Action and the pro-life movement will not stop until every child is protected and voluntary abortion is completely eradicated,” said Lila Rose, president of the pro-life activist group Live Action.
“It is also critical for pro-life policymakers to create laws that protect children in need and make America a more welcoming place to raise a family,” Rose said, adding that “the first priority must be to stop the killing.”
But Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation’s largest abortion provider, told Fox News Digital that the #WeCount data only provides a “glimpse” of the challenges women have faced since the Dobbs decision.
“These data provide just a glimpse of the national health crisis created by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and demonstrate the devastating impact the abortion ban has had on people’s ability to get care,” Johnson said. “Banning or restricting abortion does not reduce people’s need for abortion care; it just prevents people from accessing it,” the CEO of Planned Parenthood continued.
“The rest of the country simply cannot — and frankly, should not — meet the needs of the thousands of people living in 18 states and counting who have severely limited or no access to abortion,” Johnson added.
According to FiveThirtyEight research, while some Democraticstates led by Illinois and Minnesota saw increases in abortions among women traveling to other states, with increases not offset by decreases in abortions in other states. Since Dobbs, some Republican-led states have outright banned abortion, resulting in more dramatic declines in those areas.
According to Tessa Longbons of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, pro-life laws in red states “save thousands of lives and provide a new level of protection for women who have been preyed upon for 50 years by the for-profit abortion industry.”