South Carolina abortion numbers continue to fall as more mothers choose life for their unborn babies.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control recently reported 4,646 abortions in 2018, a drop of nearly 500 from the previous year, according to the Catholic News Service.
Abortions in the state dropped to their lowest since 1975, two years after Roe v. Wade forced states to allow abortion on demand, the report noted.
Though thousands of babies still lose their lives in abortions every year in South Carolina, abortion numbers are just a fraction of what they once were. According to state data, there were 14,133 abortions in 1988 – the highest number recorded.
Holly Gatling, executive director of the South Carolina Citizens for Life, said pro-life efforts are making a huge difference for unborn babies and mothers. She praised the work of pregnancy resource centers, pro-life legislators and advocates who are providing education and support throughout the state.
“We’re seeing an increase in engagement by the public when it comes to abortion,” Gatling said. “They get involved when they receive the correct information about the extreme nature of laws like the one passed recently in New York, and other laws around the nation that basically allow abortion at any time for any reason.”
Abortion numbers are dropping all across the United States. In Georgia, abortion numbers have dropped by about 20 percent in the past two decades.
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A 2018 report by the Centers for Disease Control showed abortions at an all-time low since 1973, the year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Roe v. Wade, according to the Washington Post.
The CDC recorded 638,169 abortions in 2015 in the U.S., a 2-percent drop from 2014. The abortion rate declined to 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age.
However, the CDC report is incomplete. Reporting abortion numbers to the CDC is voluntary, and California, Maryland and New Hampshire did not provide their numbers to the agency. Several other states provided limited data.
The Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research group, which is considered to have the most comprehensive abortion numbers, reported 926, 200 abortions in 2014. Though higher than the CDC numbers, this number still represents a significant drop from the late 1980s and early 1990s when the U.S. saw about 1.5 million a year.
Abortion activists claim greater access to birth control and sex education are reasons for the decline, but even they admit that pro-life efforts are leading to fewer abortions. Every year, pro-lifers are successfully saving unborn babies and moms from abortion through laws, pregnancy resource centers, education efforts, sidewalk counseling and more.
