Amid all of the depressing news recently—Colombia’s constitutional court legalizing abortion, the proliferation of the abortion pill—there are two very good news stories. The first is out of Texas. From NPR:
Abortions in Texas fell by 60% in the first month under the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S. in decades, according to new figures that for the first time reveal a full accounting of the immediate impact.
The nearly 2,200 abortions reported by Texas providers in September came after a new law took effect that bans the procedure once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and without exceptions in cases of rape or incest. The figures were released this month by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. In August, there had been more than 5,400 abortions statewide. State health officials said more data will be released on a monthly basis.
The numbers offer a fuller picture of the sharp drop in patients that Texas doctors have described in their clinics over the past five months, during which time courts have repeatedly allowed the restrictions to stay in place. It has left some Texas patients traveling hundreds of miles to clinics in neighboring states or farther, causing a backlog of appointments in those places.
Planned Parenthood issued a statement calling the numbers “the very beginning of the devastating impact” of the law.
This “devastation,” of course, is less money for the butchers who make their living ending the lives of others. The Texas law, even if it does not remain on the books long-term (if Roe v. Wade falls, abortion politics change radically), has already saved thousands of lives.
Then there’s Malta, which has been under massive pressure to legalize abortion ever since Ireland fell in 2018. Thus far, they are holding strong—I was privileged to interview the president of Malta some time ago, and he stated that he would resign rather than put his signature to a law legalizing abortion.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, recently urged Malta to repeal its total ban on abortion, claiming the ban endangers women’s right to health.
She further claimed the ban puts other rights at risk, as well, including women’s right to life, to be free from torture and discrimination, and their right to privacy. “It is time for the authorities to repeal provisions criminalising abortion, develop comprehensive regulation of women’s access to legal and safe abortion, and improve the availability of sexual and reproductive health services,” she stated.
Mijatović recommended that the Maltese authorities should guarantee equality for women vis-à-vis sexual and reproductive health and rights, provide mandatory comprehensive sexuality education, ensure that contraceptives are available and affordable, and guarantee that conscience objections on the part of medical providers don’t preclude women’s “access.”
The Maltese government rejected the assertion that abortion is synonymous with health care and a right, stating, “Whilst Malta is fully committed to providing access to reproductive healthcare, and is working to improve these services, including the strengthening of comprehensive sexual health education, through a multisectoral approach, Malta does not agree with the interpretation that the right to sexual and reproductive health services includes an intrinsic right to abortion.”
The government also noted that EU member states have the right to make their own laws regarding abortion.
Be encouraged. Good things are accomplished every day by good people, and lives are being saved by pro-life men and women committed to the protection of every child. All we can do is what we can do—and that is often much more than we realize.
