In my last post, I made the argument that the difference between the number of residents of Allegheny County who had abortions, and the number of abortions performed in the County -- 2,935 more abortions than those performed on residents in 2015 -- could be explained if the excess were students from the County and beyond, giving their home counties or states as their residences.

The statistics above confirm this. On the left are counties in the western part of PA (just west of Harrisburg) and the number of students that are enrolled in the colleges in those counties. On the right are the abortions recorded for 2015 for the same counties. One sees immediately that there is no correspondence between the number of students and the number of abortions. So, for example, Centre County (State College) has over 47,000 students, but only 127 abortions to residents. Contrast this with Westmoreland County, with 12,000 students, but 432 abortions to residents, or Fayette County, with 800 students and 196 abortions.

How many of these students in the western half of PA are coming to Pittsburgh for abortions? It's something of a guessing game, but we can make some assumptions. Women among the over-47,000 students at State College who are seeking abortions are probably going to Harrisburg. The majority of student abortion-seekers in Westmoreland, Butler, Washington and Beaver, Lawrence, and Indiana counties likely are coming to Pittsburgh.

It is a safe assumption that higher numbers of students means higher numbers of abortions. It would make sense, then, for us who want to reach these women before they make a decision they may well regret, to reach the women in those counties and at those institutions with advertising, and direct them to the local pregnancy help centers.

Vision for Life - Pittsburgh is aiming to bring down abortion numbers for residents of Allegheny County. (In 2015, 4 out of 5 unborn children of residents were born; 1 was aborted. Now, we are going for 5 out of 6!) As I noted in my last blog post, the number of abortions to non-residents of Allegheny County actually declined faster from 2010 to 2015 than the number of abortions to residents. If we were to advertise in these other counties with high numbers of students, we might help bring down those non-resident numbers even further and faster.

The second-highest number of abortions performed in Pennsylvania are done within Allegheny County, but the numbers are going down. (Philadelphia County has the highest number, and is responsible for 40 percent of PA's abortions -- but that's another horror story.) Residents of Allegheny County, however, are only part of the County's total. For example, in 2015 residents had 3,384 abortions, but the abortion centers here -- Planned Parenthood, Allegheny Reproductive Services, Magee Womens Hospital -- performed another 2,935 abortions on women from elsewhere. Some would be women living in or near Pittsburgh, who would declare their residence to be another county or state. Some would be women coming from surrounding counties, and even from Ohio or West Virginia. 

There has been a slight change in proportions, too: in 2010, abortions to non-residents were 48 .3 percent of the total; by 2015, they had dropped to 46.4 percent.

​We might think that the drop in non-resident abortions reflected fewer abortions performed on women who live in the counties surrounding Allegheny County: Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington, and Westmoreland. This is not so: the reduction for abortion numbers for these counties from 2010 to 2015 was only 252, a 15.3 percent difference, smaller than that of Allegheny County's 17 percent. It is probably the case that we would find the same result if we looked at counties even further afield.

So what group is it that lives close enough to Pittsburgh that some would come here for abortions, but its members do not technically reside in the county? Students are the most likely one. They live temporarily in Allegheny County or in neighboring college counties, and they would declare to the abortionists that they were from another county or state. This would be reported to the PA Department of Health, and we see the results in the Annual Abortion Reports.

Our friends at Women's Choice Network, Choices Pregnancy Services, the Pregnancy Resource Center of the South Hills, Alpha-Omega Pregnancy Center in Slippery Rock, and all the other centers near colleges and universities, should keep up their excellent outreach and advertising to this demographic, and perhaps the annual numbers of abortions performed in Allegheny County will continue their downward trend.
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Note: This blog entry was changed May 21 to show the correct numbers of abortions in China annually, and corrected calculations for the U.S.

When people learn that we in America have about 1 million abortions a year, they are often horrified. The truth is, our numbers are small compared to China's. China's population in 2015 was 1.371 billion, and Chinese had about 23 million abortions the same year, that is, an abortion number equal to about 1.7% of its population. If we were to match that, we would have to have well over 5 million abortions, instead of the million or so that we have every year. Abortion must be the leading cause of intended death in human history, beating all wars.

The beginning of industrial-scale abortion was the development of suction curretage in Communist Russia in the early 1920s. Abortionists everywhere could set up a series of women in one room after another, zip into the first and do their awful work for ten minutes, and then go to the next room, and so forth, and make a killing in the figurative sense, too. This has been the pattern here in the States, too, with abortionists occasionally flying from city to city to do their dirty work.

It is not surprising that societies founded on materialism should be so callous towards human beings. (The Communist philosophy is hostile to the notion of any power beyond the "dialectic of history," so individuals are of value only if they advance that dialectic by being on "the right side of history.") Or, to put it another way, it is remarkable how humanizing the Christian religion has been in the Western world (and still is).

Even we Christians, however, are tempted to despair when we read these mind-numbing numbers. We are tempted to say to ourselves, "What is saving one life, when so many, many die?"

Against these monolithic horrors, however, we can only cling to the truth that God sees everything, that he does not give up on humanity, as despicable as we may be in some instances. Jesus says, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:29-30). God's care for us as individuals is the basis of our care for others. If others treat people like cattle, that is not our way.

We know that every intentional killing of an innocent human being is an offence to God and humankind. Why doesn't God stop the killing? Perhaps he will. He can exercise judgment on nations in history, and he may yet judge the Chinese for their mass destruction of the image of God -- we don't know.

He has given each of us this tremendous freedom, which we can abuse. We can take some consolation from the fact that each of us, including the abortionists, must appear before "the awesome judgment seat of Christ." And we can be chastened by the same thought, for we, too, are sinners in need of His mercy.

When we engage in pro-life activism or try to reach people with a pro-life message, who are we talking to?

About 20 to 25 percent of the population is pro-life. About 20 to 25 percent is "pro-choice" or pro-abortion. The rest are in the middle. They don't want to think about the issue. When they are polled, they give inconsistent answers, often depending on how the question is put.

Who should we try to talk to? The people who disagree with us are often simply irrational. Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood couldn't answer the question of when human life begins. Oftentimes these people are reduced to shouting, or to repeating ad hominem mantras, insulting us as bigots, women-haters, "fetus-fetishists," and so forth. One might think that people so passionate would be great pro-life advocates, but that's usually not the case. Too often they are wounded people, who have difficulty making an argument, controlling their tempers, or seeing any good in their adversaries. We are living in a time of tribalism, where loyalty to people or general positions trumps any kind of reflection. We wish the folks on the other side well, but there's not much we can do for them except to be as kind as we can to them personally, and pray for them.

So if we want to change minds and influence people, we need to address those who are in the middle, who are reflexively "pro-life" or "pro-choice" perhaps, but couldn't tell you why, beyond a slogan. Last fall, charges were filed against an Anglican priest for offering to pray for women who were entering an abortion clinic. What was interesting to me was that he became active in the pro-life movement because of the videos of Planned Parenthood executives talking about the sale of parts of babies' bodies.

"Last year, Life Legal clients David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress released videos of their undercover investigation of Planned Parenthood. At the time, Father Linton’s wife was pregnant with their third child.

'The combination of seeing abortion victims sorted through for parts and my wife being pregnant destroyed me,' Linton said. 'She organized a protest and I’ve been in front of the clinic every Friday since.'"

This is our audience: people who are inclined to be pro-life, but may not have given abortion much thought. Who are the people inclined to do something , anything, about abortion? Christians, by and large.

If we want to change public opinion in a way that results in action, then, we should address our outreach to Christian churches that may be middle-of-the-road. The Pew organization, with its polls of religion and society, could probably tell us which ones those are. (I haven't looked yet.) If we want to convert people to action, then that's where we should start.

Amy Scheuring, in the photo above on the right, with VFL Board member Kate Luckett on the left; Constellation Energy gave us a $500 grant to go towards improving the search results for the North Side Women's Choice Network center. Thanks, Constellation!

Amy reports that VFL's advertising is having a big impact:

"Amazing Outcomes!
Within the first months of 2017, we have served an incredible number of clients and families. We are seeing an amazing 45% increase in all key outcomes over last year. This means 45% more visits, pregnancy tests, sonograms, and STD tests. Over 80% of our clients are assessed as “abortion minded” or “abortion vulnerable”. This means we are stretched to our limits but we are reaching our mission. By May 13, there were 671 visits to our Centers, 416 new clients, and 116 lives were saved from abortion (documented so far). We attribute much of this growth to our advertising partner, Vision For Life. Together we seek out the most effective ways to reach those most vulnerable to abortion. And the statistics reveal that those strategies have been successful! Please pray for our team to be able to effectively care for all those God sends to our doors." http://mypregnancycenter.org/wordpress/?p=2830#respond

We are working with Women's Choice Network and Choices Pregnancy Services to increase the number of babies born, rather than aborted, to 5 out of 6 in Allegheny County. It looks like we're on our way to our goal this year. Thank God!

We held a Charity Dinner May 2 at the Treesdale Golf and Country Club in Gibsonia. It was a truly delightful evening. I'm not a fan, generally, of these dinners, but that has more to do with my own makeup than the dinners themselves. Harry Griffith did a great job putting everyone at ease. I spoke briefly about what we were doing: going from 3 out of 4 pregnancies resulting in birth in 2010, to 4 out of 5 children being born in 2015, to 5 out of 6 children being born in . . . perhaps 2017!

I told the people present that we were looking for $15,000. I was surprised. Including some money given before and after the event, we raised something like $23,000! Astonishing! Thank you, VFL supporters!

We are already putting that money to use to improve the search results for Women's Choice Network on Google. March was a banner month for WCN -- the most new clients in one month in their history. We are also doing Google advertising with Choices Pregnancy Services. While pay-per-click advertising works, it may be taking a back seat to Googles' "Local Search" or "Google Places" advertising -- and we're on top of that, too, for both organizations. It should be a good year for saving moms and babies from abortion.