Michigan abortions fall again
For the 11th time in last 12 years, the number of Michigan abortions decrease

Hard work by prolife activists across Michigan paid dividends again in 1999 with the release of official state data showing the number of abortions falling 6.8 percent! This is the sixth consecutive yearly drop, with a steady decrease in 11 of the past 12 years. Overall, the number of abortions has fallen a remarkable 46.6 percent since the peak year of 1987.

Equally amazing are the data on teenagers obtaining abortions. In the decade of the 1990’s, the abortion rate for girls under the age of 18 has plummeted 56.2 percent. If the first decade of the new century is equally successful, there would be almost no abortions for minors by 2010. The 1999 figures also revealed an unexpected 19.8 percent decrease in abortions to non-Michigan residents. Implementation of the 24-hour waiting law in September of 1999 may be one reason women from border states chose not to enter Michigan for an abortion. The full impact of that “Informed Consent” law won’t be seen for possibly another year or two.

Michigan prolife efforts to reduce abortion are being recognized around the country as a national model. Michigan’s abortion rate of 11.5 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age is 74 percent below the national rate of 20 per 1,000. Right to Life of Michigan President Barbara Listing credited the unified, grassroots work of RLM members.

Listing said, “By joining together to pass prolife legislation and combining our resources to air cutting-edge television commercials, we are steadily making Michigan a prolife state. Educational programs by our local affiliates and cooperative efforts with pregnancy resource centers have given women facing unintended pregnancies the truth about abortion and real alternatives to it.”

Educational efforts directed at young people and the T.V. ads focused on younger women are clearly showing results. The rate of abortion for women under 25 has fallen faster than among the older age groups.

As a result, Listing is predicting an even brighter prolife future stating, “The tide has definitely turned with more and more young women deciding to choose life. But we are only half way to zero. There are still 72 abortions per day in Michigan. We cannot and will not rest until we have restored protection to every unborn child.”

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