• No more than 7% (112,000) are atributed to potential threats to the mother's psychological or physical health.^1,2

• No more than 1% involve cases of rape or incest.^1,2
• Three out of four women having an abortion say a child would interfere with work, school, or other responsibilities. ³
• The number of abortions nationwide is more than one third the total number of live births;⁴   about one-fourth of all pregnancies ends in induced abortion.⁵
• The United States surpases all other Western nations in the number of abortions per 1000 women of childbearing age.⁶
• Adolescent girls and teenagers (age 11-19) account for 26 percent of all abortions.  Those age 18-19 have the highest abortion rate - 63 per 1000.⁷
• Forty-five percent of minors who obtain an abortion do so without parental knowledge.⁸
• "Repeat" Abortions (Percentage of abortions performed on women who have had one, two, or more previous abortions)⁹ 1980 = 33%

1988 = 43%

FOOTNOTES
1.  Rachel Benson Gold, Abortion and Women's Health (New York and Washington, D.C.: The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1990) p.11.
2.  Ibid., p.20
3.  Ibid., p.19
4.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control report the abortion ratio for 1987 as 356 abortions per 1,000 live births (Abortion Surveillance Summaries, June, 1990, p.23, latest figures available).
5.  Gold, p.11, reports a total of 6,355,000 pregnancies and 1,600,000 abortions.
6.  Christopher Tietze and Stanley K. Henshaw, Induced Abortion: A World Review, 6th ed. (New York: Alan Guttmacher Institute, 1986)
7.  Stanley K. Henshaw and Jennifer Van Vort, "Teenage Abortion, Birth and Pregnancy Statistics: An Update,"  Family Planning Perspectives, Volume 20, Number 4, March/April, 1989, The Alan Guttmacher Institute, p.85-6.
8.  Alan Guttmacher Institute, Facts in Brief (1989)
9.  Stanley K. Henshaw and Jane Silverman, "The Characteristics and Prior Contraceptive Use of U.S. Abortion Patients, "Family Planning Perspectives, Volume 20, Number 4, July/August, 1988, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, p.159.

This article was printed and distributed by the Knights of Columbus and was posted on this web site  March 1999.

Send a pro life letter (letter is preferable) or an email to your  Senators and representatives using the Directory at the Congressional Email Directory.  Point and click here to surf to their web site.
 

A note from the Web Master:

It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion.  Let us not forget that ordinary everyday run of the mill abortion is also murder.  We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method.  Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not make the other methods less so.  We should be horrified and sickened by any abortion regardless of the method.  The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly:

"Thou shalt not kill."

A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul.  Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any abortion occurs.  Please contact both of your Senators and Representative, via letter or phone,  to let them know how horrified you are that abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth abortions and all other abortions as soon as possible.

(It has become apparent that they do not respond to email therefore you will have more of an impact by writing or telephoning.)

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