Terry Vanderheyden
The Interim

A new analysis from a pro-abortion group, the Alan Guttmacher Institute, shows that U.S. abortion rates continued to decline in 2001 and 2002, although the rate of decline slowed since the early 1990s. The Institute estimated that 1,303,000 abortions took place in the United States in 2001 – 0.8 per cent fewer than the 1,313,000 in 2000. In 2002, the number of abortions declined again to 1,293,000, or another 0.8 per cent. The rate of abortion also declined, from 21.3 procedures per 1,000 women aged 15-44 in 2000 to 21.1 in 2001 and 20.9 in 2002.

Meanwhile, Michigan has seen an even more significant drop in abortions. According to recently released statistics from the Michigan Department of Community Health, abortions performed in Michigan decreased substantially in 2004 from the previous year. The report from the Michigan Department of Community Health stated that 26,269 abortions were committed in the state during 2004, compared to 29,540 Michigan abortions in 2003, a decrease of 11.1 per cent. Since 1987, there has been a 46.5 per cent decrease in Michigan abortions.

Right to Life of Michigan president Barbara Listing said in a release, “Michigan is showing a true climate of life with the decrease of abortions … More and more women are rejecting abortion and making the positive choice of life for their babies.”

In related news, the United Kingdom’s Department of Health Statistics revealed July 28 that the number of abortions rose by 4,000, from 181,600 in 2003 to a “record high” 185,400 in 2004. Particularly troubling was a six per cent rise in abortions among girls under 14 years of age.

Conservative family spokesman Theresa May told the Daily Mail, “It is deeply concerning that the number of girls at 13 and under having abortions continues to grow. What is clear is that the government’s teenage pregnancy strategy is failing to stem the tide of teenage pregnancy. We urgently need to address both with parents and through the classroom, the underlying problems which see young girls becoming pregnant.”

May emphasized, “We need to educate and instill young girls with the self-esteem to resist the pressures which are clearly placed on them at such young ages, and equip them with the confidence to say no.”

This article originally appeared on LifeSiteNews.com Aug. 2.