The news continues to be encouraging for pre-born babies in Wisconsin. Abortions dropped by nearly seven percent over the past year in the state, according to the data released by the Wisconsin Health Department. In fact, statistics show that the number of abortions there has decreased over the past five years, making the Badger State one of the most pro-life states in the nation.
In its latest report, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services said that induced abortions, which the state defines as pregnancies ended by physicians, decreased from 6,927 in 2012 to 6,462 last year. According to health department statistics, the number of abortions across Wisconsin has dropped each year since 2009, when the state reported 8,542 of the procedures — 2,080 more than last year.
Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, declared that the latest numbers represent “fantastic news” for women and children in the state. “Our steep abortion decline continues with the release of 2013 abortion numbers which reveal there were 465 fewer abortions in 2013 than in 2012,” she noted. This represents a 6.7 percent decrease in one year.”
The report found that 6,251 of the abortions last year were performed on Wisconsin residents, while 115 were performed on Michigan residents, 70 on Illinois residents, six on Minnesota residents, one on an Iowa resident, 18 on residents from other states, and one on a woman from another country.
State health officials also reported that 215 girls under the age of eighteen opted to abort their babies last year, with a parent or other adult giving consent in 186 of those cases. Another 17 had approvals by judges to waive consent requirements, and 12 emancipated minors also had abortions.
Additionally, noted Wisconsin Right to Life, the report showed that:
• 89 abortions were performed after the fifth month of pregnancy.
• Nearly 89 percent of the abortions were performed on unmarried women.
• 24 percent of abortions were performed on African-American women, compared to nine percent on Hispanic women.
• 18 percent of abortions were chemical procedures.
Weininger told The New American that she thinks Wisconsin’s strong pro-life posture relative to other states stems in large part from the efforts of the state’s pro-life community to educate and counsel mothers to choose life for their babies instead of abortion. “It’s crucial for a woman involved in a crisis pregnancy to be fully informed about the human being she is carrying,” she said, “and to know that she has options besides ending her pregnancy.”
In 2013 Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed legislation that requires, in part, that a pregnant woman have an ultrasound showing the developing baby and its heartbeat before deciding on whether or not to go through with an abortion. Weininger said that the measure has helped to lower the abortion count in Wisconsin. “When a mom has an opportunity to see her baby, she realizes that she is carrying a real person with arms, legs, and a heartbeat,” she said. “It is undeniably a baby and a life.”
Sam Guzman, a spokesman Pro-Life Wisconsin, told The New American that his group has witnessed scores of expectant women change their minds on aborting their babies through the compassionate outreach of counselors outside abortion clinics. In fact, he said that sidewalk counselors with Pro-Life Wisconsin helped change the hearts and minds of more than 200 pregnant women as they counseled with them outside one notorious Wisconsin clinic, Affiliated Medical Services in Milwaukee.
“Those changes come through interacting compassionately with pregnant women face-to-face, and giving them realistic alternatives to ending the lives of their babies,” he said.
One such counselor, Pro-Life Wisconsin board member Dan Miller, explained that the consistent presence of sidewalk counselors and caring volunteers outside of abortion facilities, along with high-profile pro-life campaigns such as 40 Days for Life, has been a part of the downward trend in abortions in the state. “In 2013, 208 babies were saved from abortion by sidewalk counselors in Milwaukee alone, that we know of,” said Miller.
Of the latest numbers showing Wisconsin’s continued pro-life trend, Miller said, “God continually encourages His people to defend the most vulnerable members of the human family with good news like this.”
