The full statistical report can be viewed in a PDF file right here but let me sum up its findings for you.For the second consecutive year there was a double-digit decrease in the number of abortions performed in Nebraska. The number of abortions in 2005 showed a drop of 11.5%, bringing the rate to its lowest level since 1974. With the drop recorded last year, one sees the official report suggest a 22% decline in abortions in the state over the last two years. As skeptical as I am about the reporting procedures, this still represents a very significant change. And that change, by the way, reflects a steep drop in what had already been a steadily decreasing abortion rate. For example, the state recorded 6,346 abortions in 1990. The 2005 number was half that.
Regarding the excuses used to justify their abortion, nearly half checked the boxes marked “contraceptive failure” (23.1%) or “no contraception used” (26.2%). Commenting on this Greg Schleppenbach, the Executive Director of the Bishops' Pastoral Plan for Pro Life Activities says, "This statistic, of course, seriously undermines the abortion industry claim that greater access to contraception results in fewer abortions. Access to contraceptive devices and services has never been higher, and yet half of all abortions last year were related to contraceptive failure or nonuse."
Not surprisingly for sidewalk counselors, the report suggests that over 1/3 of all women paying for Nebraska abortions in 2005 were doing so as a repeat. Indeed, over a hundred women in the report admitted it was their 5th or 6th abortion!
The obvious question arising from these statistics concerns the dramatic decline and I've got a couple of thoughts about that. On one hand, there is certainly positive evidence that the prayers and educational efforts of pro-life advocates over the years have paid off in amazing ways. There is in Nebraska and throughout the country a greater tenderness towards prenatal life because of our work. I am encouraged.
However, the Nebraska decline in surgical abortions also involves things that are not so encouraging. Among these is the opening of a Planned Parenthood abortion center in Council Bluffs, Iowa (just across the river from Omaha) which is clearly drawing some of C.J. Labenz's and Leroy Carhart's abortion business. And less liable to demographic charting are the increases in chemical and internal device abortions being performed in Nebraska (Norplant, the "morning after pill," RU-486, the patch, the I.U.D., and the most deadly of all in sheer numbers, the abortions caused by the backup mechanisms of the so-called birth control pills when breakthrough ovulation occurs). The kids killed by these "secret" abortions won't show up on any state report but their deaths are as tragic and unnecessary as those done by any curette or suction machine.
So yes, I believe pro-life Nebraskans can take heart from the latest reports from the state but they must not relax their efforts. No, we must not only keep up what we've been doing but we must also increase our prayers and our creative efforts against whatever sources of endangerment lie in wait for mothers and their babies.
