The right to life has always been vital to our country’s constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment of our constitution prohibits the states from depriving “any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The Declaration of Independence also states: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Abortion infringes on the rights established by the fathers of our nation. We must preserve the freedom that makes our country unique. We do this by fighting for every human to have the right to life. With the first anniversary of Roe v Wade overturning, we are moving in that direction, BUT we can’t rest yet. Many don’t realize that the overturning of Roe v Wade was just the beginning. This is a long-term fight to make abortion unthinkable in the US.
WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW IN THE ABORTION INDUSTRY?
Since the overturning of Roe v Wade, the availability and legalities of abortion have changed from state to state. Here is a comprehensive list of those states that have enacted total bans, partial gestational bans, and those that have made legal moves to protect abortion.
States with Near Total Bans: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
States with Enacted Laws Protecting Abortion: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
States with Bans Blocked by the Court: Indiana, Wyoming, Ohio
States with Partial Gestational Bans: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Utah, Nebraska, Montana, Iowa
Since Roe v Wade was overturned, there has been an undeniable shift in the abortion industry. But, is it moving in the direction to make abortion unthinkable? According to the Society of Family Planning statistics released in April 2023, there were 32,260 cumulative fewer abortions monthly from July to December 2022. While this is fantastic news for the life-affirming side, the downside is the increase in women traveling to get abortions. Since the overturning of Roe v Wade, the monthly average increased by 11,150 more women who had abortions in states where it remained legal. In Colorado, where Save the Storks is headquartered, abortions have increased exponentially in the past year. According to 9News, “medical professionals administered 14,154 abortions in Colorado in 2022 — the most in the state since 1985.”
In the six months following the decision in June, an average of 5,377 fewer abortions have been provided in the US each month. On the contrary, the pro-abortionists still fight for women to get abortions by any means necessary. Enter telehealth abortion.
THE RISE OF THE TELEHEALTH ABORTION AND ABORTION PILLS
Since last June, the number of abortions provided through telehealth and abortion pills has risen. A telehealth abortion clinic is an abortion pill provider with no physical location. This means women can book appointments online or through the phone and receive their abortion pill through the mail. In July 2020, the public health crisis pushed the FDA to remove the in-person requirement for dispensing the abortion pill, mifepristone. So anyone with a computer and the ability to forward mail to an out-of-state address can receive abortion pills through the mail, even in states where abortion is now illegal.
Abortion care through telehealth shifted from 4% of all abortions to 11% from April to December after the Dobbs decision. States like Washington even went as far as to stockpile abortion pills in preparation for the FDA removing mifepristone from the market. In this case, the pro-abortionists have threatened to continue using misoprostol, the secondary medication typically used with mifepristone to perform abortions. In the meantime, more insurers are beginning to cover these online abortions.
This rise in the abortion pill does not account for the underground industry. Which reports at least 20,000 packets of abortion pills being shipped to people in the United States six months post Roe v. Wade. These pills are shipped in an industry operating outside the US legal healthcare. So has the country’s opinion changed? Is abortion unthinkable in the US?
VIEWS OF ABORTION POST-ROE
Many do not understand the implications of the attention garnered for abortion since the overturning of Roe v Wade. Support for abortion grows daily in the name of women’s rights, especially through media. Although the Republican opinion of abortion has remained consistent since 2007, with about 40% believing abortion should be legal, the democratic party has shown a drastic rise in the same opinion, growing from 63% in 2007 to 84% in 2023. Therefore, the political party that most typically supports abortion is rapidly growing in support, while the other remains stagnant. What the life-affirming side cannot afford to be now is stationary.
What many people of faith may not realize is that post-Roe, more Evangelicals and Catholics are pro-abortion. The following excerpt is from Time Magazine:
“According to the Public Religion Research Institute, 43% of Americans who “identify strongly” with their religious identity do not believe Roe v. Wade needed to be overturned. There’s a wide variability within the ranks, however. A majority (56%) of U.S. Catholics believe abortion should be legal, but only 30% of Catholics who attend mass weekly. Similarly, 60% of mainline protestants favor abortion being legal, but only 30% of white evangelical protestants. A slight majority of Muslims and a large majority of Jews also believe abortion should be legal in most cases.”
WHAT STEPS ARE WE TAKING TO HELP MOMS?
So, one-year post-Roe has shown it to be both a victory and a challenge for life-affirming supporters. On the life-affirming side we can’t afford to rest easy while the pro-abortion side continues to make strides. Most importantly, we cannot forget WHY we do what we do. These difficult conversations, truth-sharing moments, and the fight for justice are so that fewer women and babies suffer through abortion.
At Save the Storks, we haven’t slowed down in our fight to make abortion unthinkable. We continue to reach women with our mobile medical clinics. In fact, we’ve launched 22 new state-of-the-art mobile medical clinics since the Dobbs decision last June. Since then, we also launched our Save the Storks Start Course. This course equips you to have a compassionate conversation with a person facing an unplanned pregnancy and connect them with the resources they need to choose life. Our new online platform provides women who find themselves in unexpected pregnancies with reliable help. Our Partner Program provides customized support for life-affirming women’s clinics nationwide, and since June 2022, has partnered with 33 new women’s clinics.
Although the mission involves politics, our fight for abortion to be unthinkable is a personal one. It looks at the individual facing an unplanned pregnancy and tells them they are NOT alone. Our mission looks into the eyes of a post-abortive woman and tells her; we won’t let this travesty continue. It looks at men, women, and families broken by the decision to abort and says there is still hope. At Save the Storks, we call on our fellow Americans from all walks of life to join us in our fight for life and hope for a greater tomorrow.
