After data revealed that there could be at least 60,000 fewer abortions nationwide over the next year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, pro-life groups are urging states to provide additional assistance for pregnant women and underserved families.
According to new data published on Sunday by FiveThirtyEight, there were 10,570 fewer abortions 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. According to data released this week by #WeCount, a subsidiary of the pro-abortion non-profit Society of Family Planning, new abortion bans in 18 Republican-led states will result in 60,000 fewer abortions in the United States over the next year.
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a non-profit civil rights law firm that assisted in the Dobbs case litigation, applauded the #WeCount data’s projection of fewer abortions, but urged Republican states to continue to offer programs and incentives to help women who refuse abortions.
“We celebrate fewer abortions, but these reductions are insufficient,” said ADF senior counsel Denise Harle.
Abortions Restrictions Still Insufficient
According to Harle, corporate America and the Biden administration are pushing policies that “advance an abortion industry-endorsed agenda,” such as free abortion transportation and time off, while “pro-life states are offering real support.”
She cited Mississippi as having enacted a “multi-million dollar tax credit for donations to pregnancy centers,” and Texas as having a “unprecedented number” of programs to assist 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, “states and their citizens will step up and make abortion unthinkable.”
“Live Action and the pro-life movement will not stop until every child is protected and elective abortion is completely eradicated,” said Lila Rose, president of the pro-life activist group Live Action.
“It is also critical for life-affirming policymakers to craft laws that provide for 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.”
However, Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the country’s largest abortion provider, told Fox News Digital that the #WeCount data only provides a “sneak peek” into the issues that women have faced since the Dobbs decision.
“These data provide only a glimmer of the national health crisis created by the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and they demonstrate the devastating impact abortion bans have on people’s ability to access care,” Johnson said. “Banning or restricting abortion does not reduce people’s need for abortion care; it only prevents people from accessing it,” the Planned Parenthood CEO continued.
“The rest of the country simply cannot – and frankly, should not have to – meet the needs of thousands of people living in the 18 states and counting that have severely restricted or no access to abortion,” Johnson added.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s research, while some Democratic-led states, such as Illinois and Minnesota, saw an increase in abortion procedures by women traveling to other states, the increase did not compensate for the drop in abortions in other states. Since Dobbs, some Republican-led states have outright prohibited abortions, resulting in a more dramatic drop in those areas.
According to Tessa Longbons of the Charlotte Lozier Institute, pro-life laws in red states are “saving thousands of lives and providing a new level of protection for women, who for 50 years have been preyed on by the profit-seeking abortion industry.”
