The American
Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a new complaint against Ohio over a
state law that, among other things, requires the proper cremation or burial of
aborted babies’ remains.
Last week, the national ACLU, its Ohio chapter, and Planned Parenthood (PP) filed for a second preliminary injunction against the law on behalf of five abortion clinics in the state. The second injunction request comes after the plaintiffs received a temporary injunction against the law last April; at present, the clinics have until next month to comply with the law. Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement that she believed the law would have “a devastating impact on the ability of patients to have autonomy over their own lives.” “The effect of the law will be to delay procedural abortions, forcing patients to carry an unwanted pregnancy for weeks or months and then to undergo riskier and more expensive procedures,” stated Levenson. “Finally, the law imposes a funeral ritual on every patient, regardless of their own religious and spiritual beliefs. Judicial relief is critical to ensure patients are able to exercise their constitutionally protected right to obtain essential health care and determine the course of their own lives.”
Mark Harrington, president of the pro-life group Created Equal, said in a statement emailed to supporters that he believed the “courts ought to uphold this law and the dignity of human life.” “Laws requiring aborted babies to receive a dignified final disposition in some ways pose a bigger threat than many abortion bans do,” stated Harrington. “Because abortionists are the dregs of medicine, they will be unable to comply with these new regulations. That is why the abortion industry is fighting so hard to challenge this law.”
In late December 2020, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the Unborn Child Dignity Act into law, which mandates “final disposition of fetal remains from a surgical abortion at an abortion facility [to] be by cremation or interment.” Other provisions included requiring abortion facilities to “document in the pregnant woman’s medical record the final disposition determination made” and “maintain evidentiary documentation demonstrating the date and method of the disposition of fetal remains from surgical abortions performed or induced in the facility.” Anyone failing to comply with the provisions of the law “is guilty of failure to dispose of fetal remains humanely, a misdemeanor of the first degree.”
As we approach the 49th anniversary (January 22, 1973) of the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) Roe vs Wade decision which has resulted in the murder of 63-million fellow Americans, it is noteworthy for the second year in a row, abortions have been the leading cause of death worldwide— with more than three times as many people losing their lives to abortion than the second leading cause of death.
Worldometer, a database that keeps track of statistics on health, the global population, and other metrics in real time, determines the number of abortions performed worldwide based on data obtained from the World Health Organization. The last available snapshot of the Worldometer, as it appeared on New Year’s Eve, captured by the internet archive tool The Wayback Machine, revealed that approximately 42.6-million abortions were performed worldwide in 2021.
By contrast, only 13-million people perished of communicable diseases, the second-leading cause of death last year. The other leading causes of death paled in comparison to abortion: 8.2-million people dying of cancer worldwide, nearly 5-million deaths caused by smoking, approximately 2.5-million alcohol-related deaths, nearly 1.7-million people succumbing to HIV/AIDS, more than 1.3-million people dying in traffic accidents, and nearly 1.1-million suicides worldwide. Additionally, water-related diseases caused approximately 850,000 deaths, the seasonal flu killed nearly half a million people, nearly 400,000 perished because of malaria, and over 300,000 mothers lost their lives during childbirth last year.
A separate set of coronavirus statistics also compiled by Worldometer revealed that 3,524,139 people died with complications from COVID-19 in 2021. Note: Approximately 58.7-million people died in 2021. That figure does not include those who died from abortion. If abortion as a cause of death was included, the number of deaths last year would have surpassed 100-million.
2021 is not the first year that abortions were the leading cause of death worldwide. Data from the Worldometer obtained by the Wayback Machine on New Year’s Eve 2020 revealed that more than 42.6-million abortions were performed that year. Once again, the number of abortions was three times the number of people who died of communicable diseases. In 2019, Worldometer found that 42.4-million abortions occurred. As of four days into 2022, more than 400,000 abortions had been carried out worldwide.
In addition to its status as the leading cause of death globally, abortion is also the leading cause of death in the United States. The Guttmacher Institute, an abortion advocacy group, reported that 862,320 abortions were performed in the U.S. in 2017. That same year, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the leading cause of death in the U.S. besides abortion, heart disease, took the lives of 647,457 people. The total number of deaths in the U.S. in 2017, not including abortions, was 2,813,503. Including abortions increases the number of deaths to nearly 3.7-million. In 2019, the CDC reported that 625,346 abortions were carried out in the U.S. However, that statistic only includes data from 47 of the 50 states and New York City. Additionally, the number of abortions reported did not include data from California, the nation’s most populous state.
The latest data about abortion comes as the issue has emerged front and center in American politics because of the SCOTUS’ upcoming ruling in the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health. In the Dobbs case, the justices will decide whether Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban violates the U.S. Constitution. A ruling in favor of the state of Mississippi, which is seeking to uphold the ban, would significantly weaken the precedent set by Roe vs. Wade decision determining that women have the right to an abortion.
In addition to the new developments surrounding the ongoing litigation over the Mississippi law, as well as a Texas law that bans abortions after a baby’s heartbeat can be detected, usually at around six weeks gestation, a multitude of pro-life laws passed at the state level in 2021. The Guttmacher Institute published multiple reports expressing concern about the pro-life trend across the states, concluding with a year-end report describing 2021 as “the worst year for abortion rights in almost half a century.”
No comments:
Post a Comment