The Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that there have been nearly 50 million abortions performed since 1973, the year the Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade decision ushering in legal abortion nationwide.
In 2008, Guttmacher says, there were 1.2 million "legally terminated pregnancies" in the United States, based on reports complied from state and local health agencies -- down from 1.3 million the year previous.
According to Guttmacher, 35 percent of all U.S. women will have had an abortion by age 45.
Proponents of abortion couch their arguments in women's "health" terms, and try to divide pro-lifers over the propriety of abortions in rare cases like rape and incest. But the data proves that the vast majority of abortions are purely elective:
Guttmacher also reports that 93 percent of all abortions occur for “social reasons” such as a mother’s decision that the child is unwanted or “inconvenient.”
Both Guttmacher and CDC say that black women are more than four times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.7 times as likely.
Of these elective abortions, approximately 50 percent are repeat abortions -- women coming in for at least their second termination. Liberals pretend to reject the concept of abortion as birth control, but that's exactly what it's being used as today. Abortion profiteers like Planned Parenthood make millions in blood money annually because of the status quo, and they shell out a lot of campaign cash to protect their financial interests. Taxpayers should not subsidize their ghastly endeavors, or make them any easier.
UPDATE: Another mother dies during a botched abortion.