by Steven Ertelt | Washington, DC | LifeNews.com | 1/2/14 12:44 PM

A new report from the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, a former arm of Planned Parenthood, shows the pro-life is winning — passing more pro-life laws to stop abortions in the last three years than the previous decade.

The proof is in the pudding when it comes to whether or not pro-life laws are making a difference. The number of abortions in states that are consistently passing more pro-life laws stopping abortions are down to historic lows — making it so abortions are down to their lowest level nationally since just after Roe v. Wade.

From the new report by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute:

Reproductive health and rights were once again the subject of extensive debate in state capitols in 2013. Over the course of the year, 39 states enacted 141 provisions related to reproductive health and rights. Half of these new provisions, 70 in 22 states, sought to restrict access to abortion services.

Twenty-two states enacted 70 abortion restrictions during 2013. This makes 2013 second only to 2011 in the number of new abortion restrictions enacted in a single year. To put recent trends in even sharper relief, 205 abortion restrictions were enacted over the past three years (2011–2013), but just 189 were enacted during the entire previous decade (2001–2010).

More abortion restrictions have been enacted in 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade.

 

The number of new abortion restrictions ballooned from 43 enacted in 2012 to 70 in 2013. Four states were key to this increase. North Dakota and Texas, which did not have legislative sessions in 2012, together enacted 13 restrictions in 2013. In addition, the 2012 elections brought changes to the legislature in Arkansas and the governor’s mansion in North Carolina that created environments more hostile to abortion; after adopting no abortion restrictions in 2012, these two states together enacted 13 new restrictions in 2013.

This legislative onslaught has dramatically changed the landscape for women needing abortion. In 2000, the two states that were the most restrictive in the nation, Mississippi and Utah, had five of 10 major types of abortion restrictions in effect (see Appendix). By 2013, however, 22 states had five or more restrictions, and Louisiana had 10.

The other consequence of passing so many pro-life laws is the number of abortion clinics and abortion practitioners is dropping each and every year. As LifeNews reported, one pro-life group documented a record number of abortion clinic closures in 2013, during which time 87 surgical abortion clinics halted abortions.

“The total number of surgical abortion clinics left in the U.S. is now 582. This represents an impressive 12% net decrease in surgical abortion clinics in 2013 alone, and a 73% drop from a high in 1991 of 2,176,” Operation Rescue said. “Of 87 clinics that discontinued surgical abortions, 81 are permanently shuttered while 6 abortion businesses ceased surgical abortions, but continued to sell that abortion pill. The figures do not include the 11 abortion clinics that were closed temporarily in 2013, then reopened later in the year.”

The state with the most closures was Texas at 11, most of which shut down after Texas passed an abortion law earlier this year that required abortionists to maintain local hospital privileges. New clinic safety rules accounted for closures in Pennsylvania and Maryland as well.