From the “Peace and Life Connections” newsletter of Consistent Life:
In the largest single-year drop since legalization, the Centers for Disease Control report the U.S. abortion rate dropped 5% in 2009, the latest year for which it has figures.
The number of abortion clinics plummeted more in the 8 years when Bill Clinton was president than during any other 8-year period. Now the first year of Barack Obama’s term has offered another steep decline of another kind. But unlike that in the Clinton years, this decline can’t be attributed to relative economic prosperity; 2009 was the worst year of the Great Recession.
There are many ideas on why the abortion rate fell. One is that grassroots pro-life people take more action when not relying on presidential lip service.
In a similar dynamic, the peace movement held the largest world-wide peace demonstration ever under George W. Bush. It’s not nearly as active under the Obama administration. Yet with a kill list, weaponized drones, nuclear weapon “modernization,” the Guantanamo Bay prison still open and continuing wars, grassroots peace action is needed every bit as much under either administration, just as pro-life action is needed at all times.
David R. Swartz 