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Abortion

Background

The human being is a blessed with a unique gift - ‘“The divine image is present in every man” (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1702). Endowed with ‘a spiritual and immortal’ soul...From his conception, he is destined for eternal beatitude” (CCC 1703).

Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral tragedy that is abortion.(1) “This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law: “You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish” (CCC 2270). “God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception…” (CCC 2271). God has willed that all human life is sacred and therefore we must do all we can to end abortion and help all those who have been affected by it.

Abortion is an induced fatally premature expulsion of a human embryo or fetus from the womb.

· 1 out of every 5 pregnancies ends in abortion in the United States.(2)

· Nearly 1 in 4 women have had an abortion in their lifetime.(3)

· In 2020, nearly 2500 babies were aborted each day.(4)

· Around 1 million abortions are performed in the U.S. every year.(5)

· Since 1973, more than 63 million abortions have occurred in the U.S.(6)

· The abortion rate in the U.S. is 14.4 per 1,000 U.S. women aged 15-44.(7)

· A quarter of U.S. women will have an abortion by the end of childbearing years; nearly 40% of women getting an abortion have had at least one prior abortion.(8)

· 66% of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 30. Women aged 20–24 obtain 28% of all abortions, and teenagers obtain 9%.(9)

· Black women are nearly 5 times as likely as non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are about twice as likely.(10,11)

· Around 40% of all abortions in the U.S. are performed on black women who make up only 15% of the total population of U.S. women of child-bearing age.(12,13)

· Approximately 50% of U.S. women who have an abortion are using a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant.(14)

· In cases where prenatal testing helps diagnose cases of Down Syndrome in babies, about 60-90% of these babies are eliminated by abortion yearly.(15)

1catholic.com/tract/abortion

2https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1363/psrh.12215

3https://www.guttmacher.org/news-release/2017/abortion-common-experience-us-women-despite-dramatic-declines-rates

4https://abort73.com/abortion_facts/us_abortion_statistics/

5ibid.

6https://nrlc.org/uploads/factsheets/FS01AbortionintheUS.pdf

7https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/01/11/what-the-data-says-about-abortion-in-the-u-s-2/

8https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/14/upshot/who-gets-abortions-in-america.html

9ibid.

10https://abort73.com/abortion/abortion_and_race/

11https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2008/08/abortion-and-women-color-bigger-picture

12https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/30/texas-abortion-black-women/