As we strive to advance The Gospel of Life, we must pause to take a numbing reality check. Since abortion was legalized in this country, more than 53 million preborn children have been slaughtered through induced abortion.
Beyond the recorded numbers, we can only imagine the additional hundreds of millions of children who continue to perish through abortifacient hormonal birth control drugs and devices, including the so-called morning-after pill.
Recent statistics
The most recently released abortion statistics for our own state indicate that in 2009, abortions in Wisconsin rose. In fact, the total number of babies reported to have been killed in 2009 in our state was 8,542, an increase of 313 over 2008. This marks the first increase since 2003.
According to these statistics a staggering 27 percent, or 2,251 of that 2009 total, were “chemically induced (any non-surgical procedure including oral, injected, and vaginally inserted chemicals).” That’s the equivalent of the chemical extermination of approximately 50 school buses full of children.
Growing dependency, demand
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, the state’s leading abortion provider, advocates increased access to birth control and the morning-after pill to curtail the rise in abortion. They are even lobbying for free birth control as basic health care under ObamaCare. This would only fuel an already out-of-control epidemic of sexual promiscuity, STDs, teen pregnancies, and, of course, abortion.
In fact, the growing dependence on, and widespread availability of, pre-implantation abortifacient birth control has resulted in an increased demand for post-implantation chemical abortions. When birth control and the morning-after pill fail to eliminate the “problem,” post-implantation chemical abortion (RU-486) is seen as a speedy, convenient “solution.”
New form of birth control
There is now a new form of birth control named “Ella” that contains ulipristal acetate, an embryo-lethal chemical identical to the one found in mifepristone, the active ingredient in RU-486.
Billed as an “emergency contraceptive,” Ella is recommended for use up to five days after intercourse. However, ulipristal acetate can cause a post-implantation chemical abortion. Ulipristal can be detected in reproductive tissue up to two weeks after ingestion.
Clearly there is no separation between hormonal birth control and abortion. The current trend toward chemical abortion is concrete proof that there is no room in the battle against abortion for neutrality on birth control.
Battle to turn the tide
Pro-Life Wisconsin’s lonely battle against the abortion industry’s birth control agenda is increasingly intense at the state Capitol. We are forced by Planned Parenthood to lobby against government-funded birth control, coerced insurance coverage of contraceptives, and forced contraception education and instruction in our public schools. Accordingly, Pro-Life Wisconsin’s 2011-2012 legislative agenda includes, in part, the following items:
- Eliminating state “family planning” funding for organizations (including Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin) that perform or refer for abortion;
- Enacting comprehensive conscience protections for all individual health care providers, including pharmacists;
- Repealing the new sexual education law that forces contraception education and instruction into public school human growth and development programs.
It all starts with the contraceptive mentality, which leads to the use of birth control, which leads to a dependence on abortion, especially chemical abortion, as back-up contraception.
The pro-life community instinctively knows this, but very few of us have the courage to say it and do something about it. Regardless, Pro-Life Wisconsin will endeavor to turn back the rising chemical abortion tide and the entire contraceptive/abortion mentality.
Peggy Hamill is the state director of Pro-Life Wisconsin.