Commentary

The pro-Life movement saw some significant gains in 2015, victories and progress for which we ought give thanks to the Lord and his generous people.

Here are a few of the blessings:

A recent story on LifeNews.Com reports that pregnancy centers around America helped save some 300,000 babies from abortion in 2015. The number of babies saved by the pro-Life movement is likely much higher – given that many babies are saved through churches, direct personal intervention and private charities not associated with national organizations like Heartbeat International.

The latest available data from the CDC (2012) finds that there was a decline in reported abortions between 2011 and 2012 – by some 31,000. The downward trend is confirmed by an analysis of Planned Parenthood’s 2014 Annual Report, conducted by the American Life League.  Planned Parenthood reports that it killed 323,999 babies in 2014, a decline of 3,654 preborn children from its pace of 2013.  While that decline may seem modest, Jim Sedlak of ALL notes that this is the smallest number of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood since 2007.

That same report also shows that Planned Parenthood’s claimed client visits declined to 2.5 million, the lowest number of victims since 1998. Overall, PP reports that it provided 11% fewer services in 2014 than it did the year before.

Perhaps most encouraging is the fact that Planned Parenthood received $38 million fewer private donors dollars in 2014 than in 2013. And it is important to note that this drop-off occurred before this year’s shocking revelations about Planned Parenthood’s organ harvesting/trafficking operations.

LifeNews.Com also reports that the number of abortion clinics in America continues its historic decline. Last year alone, another 53 abortuaries closed their doors.  In fact, the number of abortion clinics has dropped by some 81% since the high tide year of 1991.

As we’ve noted before, the pro-Life community can also celebrate the first-ever vote by the U.S. Congress to shut-off federal subsidies of Planned Parenthood, which remains the nation’s largest abortion provider. We understand that the House will complete its work on the Reconciliation measure next week and send the final legislation to President Obama.  Congressmen are already preparing for an override vote in the weeks ahead.

And here at home, we can rejoice over passage of Idaho’s first law limiting the use of RU-486 in the killing of babies.

This year also saw the marking of Idaho Chooses Life’s 20^th year in the battle to end abortion.  We are most grateful for those friends and supporters who have so faithfully sustained us over these two decades.

We look forward with hope and courage to 2016 because of our faith in a merciful Lord – who will certainly end abortion and the terror it represents to women, babies and families. We look for new victories in 2016, and we ask the Lord to richly bless your family and the great state of Idaho in this important election year.