Abortions Drop in Several States State Leaders Credit Legislation and Education >TX; WHY IT IS HARD WORK.(pro life movement United States)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Editor's note: Due in large part to the legislative and educational efforts of pro-lifers, several states have seen steady declines in the number of abortions. Already this year, NRL News has reported on the positive trend in North Carolina (March 2002 issue), where more women are choosing life for their unborn babies. Here we report on five other states that have experienced a decline in the number of abortions.>EN

The Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 started a revolutionary cultural change. The decision reflected neither a mandate from the Constitution nor the "will of the people," rather in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court arrogantly assumed the role of an extra-constitutional super-legislature.

Thus the cultural revolution--forced upon us not by the "will of the people," but by seven unelected and "unchecked" men. And reversing it has proved to be a long and difficult process.

Why is the cultural reversal so difficult? Aren't the facts about life clear? Haven't thousands of women made public the horror that abortion inflicted on them and their aborted children? Haven't the pro-abortionists been caught in lie after lie? Isn't it obvious that the authors of the Constitution and its amendments had absolutely no intention of creating a constitutional right to abortion? Is it really that difficult to understand that killing the innocent is morally wrong?

People who make a reasonable effort to think about these questions and become informed tend to adopt pro-life attitudes. Those who make a serious effort tend to become pro-life activists. What frustrates newly minted pro-lifers is that the "simple" task of righting an obvious moral wrong, namely nullifying Roe v. Wade, is so maddeningly difficult because so many of their fellow citizens don't see what is there for all to see.

Pro-lifers who stay the course don't allow the frustration to distract them. Understanding the source of the frustration, however, helps.

First, there is the problem that has plagued us from the day Roe v. Wade was announced: The radical sweep of the Court's decision was hidden from the public. While Roe effectively legalized abortion on demand throughout the pregnancy (as long as the woman found a willing abortionist), many press reports to this day describe the decision as legalizing abortion "in the first trimester" and imply that abortions would be primarily done for medical reasons.