One-third of independent abortion clinics close since 2012

By Hannah Hughes —

Merry Christmas! The gift to America this year is life.

According to a 2019 report from a pro-abortion group, one third of independent abortion facilities have closed since 2012, limiting access to the nefarious practice that pro-abortion forces call “health care,” a LifeSite news article reports.

The report titled “Communities Need Clinics” by the pro-abortion group Abortion Care Network blamed new state laws that restrict abortion, such as “heartbeat” legislation or tougher safety requirements to open or maintain an abortion facility.

But other factors may come into play, including the role of education in preventing pregnancy through contraceptives or the increasing use of the abortion pill, which can be ordered via mail and administered at home thus making it impossible to track abortion statistics in America. Also, the role of internet and the availability of videos online showing the horrendously graphic nature of abortion may be a factor.

Regardless of the cause, abortion advocates lamented the closures and seem to want to marshal the report as a tool to spark funding-raising in support of the abortion industry.

“Anti-abortion politicians have long used onerous restrictions to try and shut down independent abortion providers,” said Nikki Madsen, executive director of the Abortion Care Network, on CBS News as quoted in LifeSite. “Since 2010, anti-abortion politicians have passed more than 400 laws that attempt to make it too expensive or logistically impossible for abortion clinics to operate.”

The Abortion Care Network is not associated with Planned Parenthood and accounts for about half of the abortions in America.

From 2012 to 2019, 136 abortion businesses closed across the country, leaving 334 such clinics open. States that saw the highest number of closures were California at 15, Texas at 15, Florida at 11 and Michigan at 11, according to the report. Only “a handful” of new clinics have opened.

The pro-life group Operation Rescue, which independently tracks abortion facilities, found at the beginning of this year that 40 Planned Parenthoods and independent abortion clinics closed in 2018, leaving 697 open. By contrast, there were were 2,176 surgical abortion facilities open in 1991. (The numbers are different because they include Planned Parenthood.)

“The number of unborn babies who are aborted every year also has been going down as more women choose life for their babies,” LifeSite news reports. “The latest report from the Centers for Disease Control shows abortions dropped 24 percent in the past decade.”

Hannah Hughes studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Santa Monica.