Many Americans were shocked as they watched abortion rights activists’ victorious celebration moments after the New York state Senate passed a bill allowing abortion up to birth for any reason in the state. A few weeks later, outrage erupted again after Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam defended infanticide in a WTOP interview where he said that even after birth it’s up to the parents and doctor to decide whether a baby should be “resuscitated” and kept alive. Vermont passed a bill declaring abortion a fundamental right. In June, Rhode Island’s Governor Gina Raimondo sign the “Reproductive Privacy Act” which permits late-term abortions – including part-birth and dismemberment abortions. Finally, in Illinois, an abortion bill deemed more extreme than New York’s was passed in June. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed a bill not only declaring abortion a fundamental right but also declaring that the “fetus does not have independent rights.” The law also requires health insurance plans to cover abortions and forces parents to pay for their minor daughter’s abortion even if they opposed the procedure.
These new laws also set off a chain reaction amid pro-life states with at least nine U.S. cities declaring themselves “sanctuary cities for the unborn.” Among the sanctuary cities for the unborn was Yadkin County, North Carolina. Several states with majority pro-life governors passed laws banning most abortions as soon as a preborn baby’s heartbeat is detected. Kentucky also passed a law banning abortion based on sex, race and disability, as well as a law banning second-trimester dismemberment abortions that was later blocked by a judge. Alabama’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill into law making abortion a felony in the state, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
On Dec. 9, the U.S. Supreme Court gave Kentucky a victory by allowing a law to be enacted that would require abortion clinics to show mothers an ultrasound image of their baby and listen to audio of their child’s heartbeat before going through with an abortion. The law had been blocked by courts since it was enacted in 2017.
The abortion topic is sure to heat up in 2020 and there will be a stark contrast in the positions of presidential candidates in 2020 on this issue. Every Democratic presidential candidate that remains in the race is now on record saying they support taxpayer-funded abortion at the federal level while President Trump has been called by many as the most pro-life president in history.
Publishers Note: Abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide last year, with termination procedures accounting for some 42 million losses of life. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day worldwide. In the USA, where nearly half of pregnancies are unintended and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion, there are over 3,000 abortions per day. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies in the USA (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.