Study Reveals Just How Many Babies We Saved by Restricting Abortion – Praise God the Numbers Are Big

The left said, after Roe v. Wade was overturned and a new round of restrictions on abortion took place, that there would be no difference.

All it would do, they said, was make women go to other states to kill their unborn babies — or, have abortion pills mailed to them. Or maybe they would undergo illegal procedures. This would cost lives, they said, implying that abortion wouldn’t be reduced a bit.

We now know that this hasn’t — and almost certainly won’t — cost lives in terms of unsafe abortions. What we do know is this: 22,000.

That’s the number of babies America has saved by overturning Roe v. Wade and putting common sense restrictions on terminating unborn life. And, praise God, that’s a high number — one we hope will only get higher.

The number of lives saved from post-Dobbs abortion laws comes from a study published in February in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which asked if “adoption of complete or 6-week abortion bans [was] associated with differential changes in fertility rates.”

The answer: Yes, emphatically so.

The study drew “from birth certificate and U.S. Census Bureau data from 2012 through 2023 for all 50 states and the District of Columbia” and “used a bayesian panel data model to evaluate state-by-subgroup-specific changes in fertility associated with complete or 6-week abortion bans in 14 U.S. states.”

“There were an estimated 1.01 additional births above expectation per 1,000 females aged 15 through 44 years in states following adoption of abortion bans (60.55 observed vs 59.54 expected; 1.70 percent increase), equivalent to 22,180 excess births,” the study found.

Not that the authors were celebrating more babies saved, of course. Here was the takeaway: “Estimated differences were largest among racially minoritized individuals, those without a college degree, Medicaid beneficiaries, unmarried individuals, younger individuals, and those in southern states. Meaning: Estimated differences in fertility associated with abortion bans were largest among people experiencing structural disadvantage and in states with among the worst maternal and child health outcomes.”

Yes, apparently, if your parents are “racially minoritized individuals,” don’t have a degree, are poor, are young, or live in the South, your life matters less. For those of you reading this 18 years in the future — or perhaps younger if you’re the politically inclined high school student — just realize that if your mom and dad were in those groups, a bunch of doctors apparently think maybe you shouldn’t have been here reading this, after all.

Just saying.

The actual takeaway from this should be what Kate Quiñones of Catholic News Agency said: “Pro-life policies save lives, study finds.” Amen, hallelujah, praise the Lord.

“The number is a powerful indication of the impact of pro-life laws, according to pro-life expert Michael New, a senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute and assistant professor of practice at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.”

New said that “in the post-Dobbs era, the most accurate way to analyze the impact of pro-life laws is through birth data,” noting that abortion data tracking is different by state and illegal abortions obviously aren’t counted.

“That is because some women are able to circumvent pro-life laws by obtaining abortions in other states, obtaining abortions in other countries, acquiring chemical abortion pills through mail, or getting abortions outside the formal health care system,” New said.

“As such, the abortion statistics released by state health departments may not reflect the actual incidence of abortion.”

“However, if more babies are being born after pro-life laws take effect, that is powerful statistical evidence that more unintended pregnancies are being carried to term — and lives are being saved — as a result of the pro-life law,” he added, noting that it possibly “undercounts the lives saved to some extent.”

That’s because, according to CNA, the study “considers only abortion bans and heartbeat acts, not additional post-Dobbs gestational age limits.”

Imagine, if you will, a legal move that saved 22,000 lives. In any other situation, the liberals would be applauding this like mad. But instead, because the Trump administrations has been pro-life, particularly through the courts, and since conservatives waged a long, hard, and ultimately successful war against the worst Supreme Court decision since World War II — Roe v. Wade — they hate this.

Let me repeat that sentence to you again: “Estimated differences were largest among racially minoritized individuals, those without a college degree, Medicaid beneficiaries, unmarried individuals, younger individuals, and those in southern states.”

That’s the clinical takeaway from lives saved, from the fact they found that 22,000 of the most defenseless souls among us were spared.

It’s a reminder of why this is important — and what we’re still fighting against. Twenty-two thousand is a noble start. Let’s pray the number only gets larger.

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