I reported yesterday on the Centers for Disease Control’s newly released Abortion Surveillance – United States, 2009, which reported the lowest rate and ratio of abortion in the U.S. since 1974.

There was another statistic in the Abortion Surveillance:

In 2008, the most recent year for which data were available, 12 women were reported to have died as a result of complications from known legal induced abortions. No reported deaths were associated with known illegal induced abortions.

Twelve mothers that we know of died from “safe and legal” abortions in the U.S. in 2008. And as Americans United for Life’s Charmaine Yoest noted to LifeNews.com, “That number is double the deaths reported the previous year and it’s the highest since 1994.”

According to the CDC, there have been 403 legal abortion-related deaths in the U.S. since 1973 (and 56 illegal), an average of 10 a year.

So where is the outcry from feminists?

Why, they’re all busy pointing their unrighteously indignant fingers at Ireland, where elective abortions are illegal, alleging that the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar proves abortion should be legal there – so women won’t die? In fact, abortion is legal in Ireland to save the life of a mother. It is a lie to claim Halappanavar’s death would have been averted were elective abortions legal in Ireland.

But Halappanavar’s body comes in handy to push for unfettered access to murder little Irish preborn babies.

From Latanya Mapp Frett, VP of of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which is likely a culprit in at least one of those 12 deaths, an article dripping with irony in CNN yesterday:

Savita Halappanavar died last month in Ireland after being denied a lifesaving abortion. If she had lived in the United States – where in two months we will mark four decades of safe and legal abortion on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling – she likely would be alive today….

Her death in Ireland serves as a stark reminder that living in a developed country does not necessarily protect us from backward health policies.

From pro-abortion Shivana Jorawar of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, at the pro-abortion website RH Reality Check:

As I plan my own future and explore whether parenthood is right for me, I am thankful I live in a place where abortion is legal and safe, and that I can afford the right to choose. I am thankful that women have always been resilient in my country, and that we have a long history of fighting for and winning reproductive rights.

With strength and courage, women in the United States have come a long way. But our journey is not complete. Too many women are still left out and too many lawmakers threaten to send us back to a time when Savita’s story could happen here. That’s why I work to not only preserve the rights I have, but to expand them for all women— because we all have a heartbeat, too.

More irony from Jodi Jacobson, Editor in Chief of the pro-abortion website RH Reality Check:

Someone’s daughter, wife, friend, perhaps sister is now dead. Why? Because a non-viable fetus was more important than her life. Because… there are people who don’t care about the lives of women….

And if they have their way, anti-choice fanatics in the United States want this country to join these others in denying women their very personhood…

These are the lives of your sister, your mother, your daughter, your aunt, your friends, and your colleagues. These are the lives at stake. These are the very people that the fanatical anti-choice and religious right see as “not people.”

They are all Savita Halappanavar.

We are all Savita Halappanavar.

But we do not have to die at the hands of misogynists.

No, we can die at the hand of “safe and legal” abortionists right here in the United States.

And yet more tragic irony, from pro-abortion E. J. Graff at The American Prospect:

I know that many pro-life people will say they would never intend such tragic results, that these are violations of their core theology. But death results from banning abortions. That’s why some doctors will risk their lives to perform them: Because without safe abortions, real women really die…

The only pro-life position is the right to choose. Otherwise, Savita – and others – die.

Funny, I googled “Latanya Mapp Frett Tonya Reaves,”Shivana Jorawar Tonya Reaves,” “Jodi Jacobson Tonya Reaves,” “RH Reality Check Tonya Reaves,” and “E. J. Graff Tonya Reaves,” and got nothing.

But when I googled “Planned Parenthood Tonya Reaves” I did get something – several stories reporting on Tonya Reaves’ death at Planned Parenthood of Illinois in Chicago on July 20.

Where were and are the feminists standing up for Tonya, right here in America? Well, her death didn’t fit the agenda.

Any liberals who have dared to mention Tonya’s name have only done so only to criticize “right-wing abortion exploitation.”

It ought to be clear by now that Western culture is insufficiently healthy to sustain a political solution to abortion. Therefore, it is counter-productive to pour our resources into the effort to achieve such a solution.

We must use our resources far more wisely than that.

~ Dr. Jeff Mirus (pictured) explaining the futility of pro-life efforts since Roe v. Wade, Catholic Culture, November 19

Michael Voris of Church Militant.TV forcefully expresses a similar sentiment.

[HT: Catholic Bandita]

by Susie Allen, host of the blog, Pro-Life in TN, and Kelli

We welcome your suggestions for additions to our Top Blogs (see tab on right side of home page)! Email Susie@jillstanek.com.

• Michael New gives his take on the media’s claim that contraceptive use was the primary contributor to the decrease in 2009 abortion rates. There is no evidence to suggest that contraceptive use increased that year – however, New points out that it was the first year that a majority of Americans identified themselves as pro-life.

• At Live Action, Kristen Walker Hatten promotes Reggie Littlejohn’s new Save a Girl campaign against gendercide and coerced abortion in China:
  

  “We ask people to contribute $25 a month,” says Littlejohn. “Twenty dollars goes to the women and $5 goes to cover our costs and to the field workers who are bravely finding these women and getting the money into their hands….

Our primary focus is to end gendercide,” Littlejohn says, “so we’re definitely locating women who are determined to abort or abandon babies. The other thing we’re doing is helping women who are fleeing from forced abortions. We have one woman who was fleeing from village to village to avoid the family planning police. She had a baby boy a few months ago.”

• Americans United for Life says the recent reports touting the CDC’sabortion rate drop tell only part of the story. What isn’t highlighted is the fact that the 12 women who died following their abortions is “double the deaths reported the previous year and it’s the highest since 1994.”Reporting by states is also voluntary and California does not participate.
• Fletcher Armstrong spots a piece of disgusting advice for teens from Planned Parenthood that might as well have been taken from a pornographic magazine: If you’re okay with swallowing semen, go for it. But as a footnote… remember, kids, unprotected oral sex can still give you STDs. (No mixed message there, right?)

• Right to Life of Michigan fact checks a pro-embryonic stem cell piece from the Detroit Free Press, which is long on spin of promised cures but short on truth about the failures and dangers of such research. Notably missing are arguments against ESCR and discussion of induced pluripotent (adult) stem cell successes. The ESCR article features a photo of adult stem cell success – a definite misleading of the public in order to promote an agenda.
• Real Choice shares the story of two women who died from abortions 50 years apart in order to show why the legalization of abortion did nothing to save women’s lives.
• Wesley J. Smith reports on a fertility doctor who has decided to save money by using an “assembly line” approach:
  

  Dr. Ernest Zeringue… sharply cuts costs by creating a single batch of embryos from one egg donor and one sperm donor, then divvying it up among several patients.

As long as this industry remains unregulated and human life is bought as a commodity item, we can expect to see more of this.

[Graphic via The Stem Cell Blog]

It is understandable that people associated with abortion might be unpleasant, as was this delivery person for General Air, in Denver, Colorado, who dropped off an oxygen cylinder at Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains on October 24 and did not think very kindly of the pro-life activists standing outside.

WARNING: Vulgar language…

I wonder if General Air president Gary Armstrong knows how surly his employees can become?

Perhaps he and senior vice presidents Brad Armstrong, Mark Gregory, Mike Owings, and Art Waskey might reconsider doing business with this baby murdering business, which obviously brings out the worst in people.

And, of course, does General Air really want to take blood money?

by Hans Johnson

Babies not only hiccup, swallow, stretch, and suck their thumbs in the womb, they yawn. While there is much disagreement on why we yawn, it is generally thought to be for the obvious reason of getting an extra burst of oxygen.

British researchers are studying 4D scans of pre-birth babies at 24-36 weeks gestation. Opinions are varied as to why they do it. It is certainly not subconscious imitation. We know of course they get their oxygen through the umbilical cord.  Are they exercising their muscles for the day they do yawn in air?

That’s quite the genetic programming, don’t you think?

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

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…

Comparing the current number of legal abortions with those in years past is difficult since states reporting have varied. For instance, between 1995-1999, states refusing to report were Alaska, California, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma. This is a fewer number of states than most recently, which would make the current number appear even more promising…

And for the sake of interest, here are the CDC stats from 1973 to 1998, when supposedly all states were reporting…

I’m no statistician, but it seems to me the best way to analyze what is really happening is by viewing the ratio (number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years) and the rate (number of abortions per 1,000 live births). We also have to bear in mind the U.S. population has increased by 1/3 since abortion was legalized, from 204 million in 1970 to 308 million in 2010. So here are the ratios and rates…

This would make it appear 2009 showed the lowest ratio and rate of abortion since it was made legal (discounting 1973, which excluded one month, and during which time there was a learning curve and certainly fewer abortion mills).

The CDC attributes the incidence of abortion to these factors:

… the availability of abortion providers; state regulations, such as mandatory waiting periods, parental involvement laws, and legal restrictions on abortion providers; increasing acceptance of nonmarital childbearing; shifts in the racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. population; and changes in the economy and the resulting impact on fertility preferences and access to health-care services, including contraception.

The CDC touts increasing the availability of contraceptives and “[r]emoving cost as one barrier,” i.e., the Obamacare trajectory of making birth control pills available free.

But this brings other woes, such as the increased risk of various forms of cancer, since the birth control pill is a Group I carcinogenic, in the same category as mustard gas, tobacco, and asbestos. And that’s just the tip of the unhealthy iceberg.

Have I mentioned the Pill decreases libido and chemically alters a woman’s brain so she picks the wrong mate?

Then there is the growing epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, which “startled” even a Daily Kos writer, and which the Pill only exacerbates.

That Daily Kos writer, DSC on the Plateau, decried parents “who want to keep their children STUPID and who would rather risk their lives than give them life saving information,” i.e., those of us promoting abstinence education.

But has DSC, a self-described “liberal feminist,” actually objectively studied the issue? It doesn’t sound like it. No one who has, particularly a feminist, could in good conscience recommend the birth control pill for women.

The abstinence/be faithful message is the only proven method to prevent all of the aforementioned woes – unwanted pregnancies, STDs, cancers, strokes – and even broken homes.

The debate over contraception that occupied so much campaign conversation wasn’t started by Rick Santorum and Catholic bishops. Theirs was a response to President Obama’s mandate essentially requiring Catholic organizations to ignore their convictions and provide insurance coverage for birth control for their employees.

Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock didn’t introduce the subjects of abortion and rape, either – they were asked about them during debates. Yes, they responded atrociously, but Republicans don’t campaign wearing sandwich boards that say, “Ask me about rape.”ť The media cynically ask these questions to elicit crazy responses. In those two cases, mission accomplished.

So even when we don’t talk about it, liberals will find a way to get us to discuss abortion. We may as well direct the conversation instead of being dragged into it unprepared….

Half the electorate is pro-life. That means we have to talk about life in compelling, compassionate ways that resonate.

We have to stand up for life without standing against women. And, yes, we have to put up better candidates who make sane, rational pro-life arguments. The solution for conservatives isn’t to talk about it less, it’s to talk about it more – and better.

~ S.E. Cupp (pictured above), New York Daily News, November 21

by LauraLoo

If you have ever had a strong-willed child, then you know the determined look that says, “I’m not going to do it!”  Author Cynthia Tobias offers a lifeline to weary parents with fresh advice from her latest book, You Can’t Make Me (But I Can be Persuaded).  

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO8iQJizDmw[/youtube]

Here is the audio from Cynthia’s interview with In the Market’s host Janet Parschall.

Email dailyvid@jillstanek.com with your video suggestions.

[HT: WMBI - Moody Chicago]