Abortion Statistics for 2002

From Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 54(SS-7):1-31 for Nov. 25, 2005

Abortion statistics are now out for calendar year 2002.  Abortion rates are approximately constant, compared with those for 2001; slightly less than one fifth of all potential births are aborted in the USA (246 abortions per 1000 live births).

Although abortion rates and numbers have fallen since their peak in 1990, at least part of the reported decline is due to the fact that California, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Alaska do not report abortion numbers.  Prior to 1998, numbers were estimated for these states and in 1997 these estimates accounted for 286,000 abortions that have simply disappeared from the statistics in subsequent years.

Perhaps this fact is widely known, but I sure as heck didn’t know it!

To put things in perspective, the abortion ratio of 19.7% makes “not being born yet” one of the most lethal conditions any American can face.  This is a higher mortality rate that would be expected for Yellow or Lassa fevers.  Many fearsome cancers have a much higher survivorship than does the womb.  Street patrol in the Sunni Triangle doesn’t even come close.  And we wonder why God smote the firstborn of Egypt.

Pharaoh then commanded all his subjects, Throw into the river every boy that is born to the Hebrews...   (Exo 1:22, NAB)

Moses then said, Thus says the LORD: At midnight I will go forth through Egypt. Every first-born in this land shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh on the throne to the first-born of the slave-girl at the handmill, as well as all the first-born of the animals.  (Exo 11:4-5, NAB)

Jesus, knit so wonderfully in the Womb of Mary,
     Have mercy on us.
Jesus, conceived by the Holy Spirit in the Womb of Mary,
     Have mercy on us.
Jesus, uniquely human from the moment of conception in the Womb of Mary,
     Have mercy on us.
Jesus, present at creation, created in the Womb of Mary,
     Have mercy on us.
Jesus, through whom the world was made, formed in the Womb of Mary,
     Have mercy on us.
Jesus, Word made flesh, taking on a human body in the Womb of Mary,
     Have mercy on us.

(Excerpted from The Litany to Jesus in the Womb of Mary, courtesy of the Unborn jesus Apostolate.)