The Centers for Disease Control released its annual Abortion Surveillance – United States, 2009 report last week.

First came the encouraging news that the number of abortions dropped in 2009 by 5% from 2008, to 784,507, “representing the largest single year decrease for the entire period of analysis,” this past decade.

While the death toll was still a staggering three-quarters of a million babies, nevertheless this was the lowest number of abortions reported since the CDC began using its current tracking model in 2000 (which excludes nonreporting states Alaska, California, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New Hampshire, and West Virginia), the number on the right. Click to enlarge…