19 Facts About Abortion

What will the history books say about a nation that murdered 50 million of its own babies?
 

The following are 19 facts about abortion in America….
 

#1 There have been more than 53 million abortions performed in the United States since Roe v. Wade was decided back in 1973.
 

#2 When you total up all forms of abortion, including those caused by the abortion drug RU 486, the grand total comes to more than a million abortions performed in the United States every single year.
 

#3 The number of American babies killed by abortion each year is roughly equal to the number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars that the United States has ever been 

involved in combined.
 

#4 Approximately 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.  Every single day, more than 3,000 American babies are killed by abortion.
 

#5 It has been reported that a staggering 41 percent of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion.
 

#6 According to Pastor Clenard Childress, approximately 52 percent of all African-American pregnancies now end in abortion.
 

#7 One very shocking study found that 86 percent of all abortions are done for the sake of convenience.
 

#8 According to the Guttmacher Institute, the average cost of a first trimester abortion at the ten week mark is $451.
 

#9 The average cost of a vaginal birth with no complications in the United States is now over $9,000.
 

#10 A Department of Homeland Security report that was released in January 2012 says that if you are “anti-abortion”, you are a potential terrorist.  Unfortunately, there have also been other government reports that have also identified “anti-abortion” protesters as potential threats.
 

#11 A while back one Philadelphia abortionist was charged with killing seven babies that were born alive, but witnesses claim that he actually slaughtered hundreds “of living, breathing newborn children by severing their spinal cords or slitting their necks.”
 

#12 Some abortion clinics have been caught selling aborted baby parts to medical researchers.
 

#13 Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger once said the following….
“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
 

#14 In a 1922 book entitled “Woman, Morality, and Birth Control”, Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger wrote the following….
 

“Birth control must lead ultimately to a cleaner race.”
 

#15 Planned Parenthood performs more than 300,000 abortions every single year.
 

#16 Planned Parenthood specifically targets the poor.  A staggering 72 percent of Planned Parenthood’s “customers” have incomes that are either equal to or beneath 150 percent of the federal poverty level.
 

#17 There are 30 Planned Parenthood executives that make more than $200,000 a year.  A few of them make more than $300,000 a year.
 

#18 Planned Parenthood received more than 487 million dollars from the federal government during 2010.
 

#19 The following is one description of the five steps of a partial birth abortion….
 

1) Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby’s legs with forceps.
2) The baby’s leg is pulled out into the birth canal.
3) The abortionist delivers the baby’s entire body, except for the head.
4) The abortionist jams scissors into the baby’s skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the skull.
5) The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child’s brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed.

History of Abortion

At the time of the independence of the United States, English common law on abortion applied in most of the then states, and abortion was not permitted after quickening, that is after the start of fetal movements. James Wilson, a framer of the U.S. Constitution, explained the view as follows:
 

“With consistency, beautiful and undeviating, human life, from its commencement to its close, is protected by the common law. In the contemplation of law, life begins when the infant is first able to stir in the womb. By the law, life is protected not only from immediate destruction, but from every degree of actual violence, and, in some cases, from every degree of danger.”

Abortions became illegal by statute, in Britain in 1803 and various anti-abortion statutes began to appear in the United States from the 1820s codifying or expanding the common law rules. In 1821, a Connecticut law targeted apothecaries who sold poisons to women for purposes of abortion; and New York made post-quickening abortions a felony and pre-quickening abortions a misdemeanor eight years later. It is sometimes argued that the early American abortion laws were motivated not by ethical concerns about abortion but by concern about the safety of the procedure. However, some legal theorists point out that this theory is inconsistent with the fact that abortion was punishable regardless of whether any harm befell the pregnant woman and the fact that many of the early laws punished not only the doctor or abortionist, but also the woman who hired them.
 

A birth control movement developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries presaging the modern debate over women's body rights. A campaign was launched against the movement and the use and availability of contraceptives, which at the time most commonly consisted of condoms and IUD's. These were described as abortifacients (i.e., substances that induce an abortion). The moral campaigners sought to outlaw even information on contraception, and succeeded with the passing of the Comstock laws of 1873, which banned the use of the postal service for the dissemination of contraceptive devices and literature, even to students of medicine. Distribution of such material was suppressed as obscene. Similar prohibitions were passed by 24 of the then 37 states. Importation was also banned on the same basis.
 

At the same time, the criminalization of abortion accelerated from the 1860s, through the efforts of concerned legislators, doctors, and the American Medical Association.] By 1900 abortion was a felony in every state. Some states did include provisions allowing for abortion in limited circumstances, generally to protect the woman's life or to terminate pregnancies arising from rape or incest. Abortions continued to occur, however, and increasingly became readily available. The American Birth Control League was founded by Margaret Sanger in 1921 to promote the founding of birth control clinics, to enable women to control their own fertility.
 

In the 1930s, licensed physicians performed an estimated 800,000 abortions a year.

In the 1992 case of Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the Court abandoned Roe's strict trimester framework Instead adopting the standard of undue burden for evaluating state abortion restrictions, but reemphasized the right to abortion as grounded in the general sense of liberty and privacy protected under the constitution: "Constitutional protection of the woman's decision to terminate her pregnancy derives from the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. It declares that no State shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." The controlling word in the cases before us is "liberty."
 

The Supreme Court continues to grapple with cases on the subject. On April 18, 2007 it issued a ruling in the case of Gonzales v. Carhart, involving a federal law entitled the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003 which President George W. Bush had signed into law. The law banned intact dilation and extraction, which opponents of abortion rights referred to as "partial-birth abortion," and stipulated that anyone breaking the law would get a prison sentence up to 2.5 years. The United States Supreme Court upheld the 2003 ban by a narrow majority of 5-4, marking the first time the Court has allowed a ban on any type of abortion since 1973. The opinion, which came from justice Anthony Kennedy, was joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and the two recent appointees, Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

Sex and Pregnancy: The "Do's" of Doing It

You already know that it takes time to slim down after a pregnancy. But new moms should expect delays in the bedroom department as well. Most women wait at least six to eight weeks after giving birth to have sex again, according to a new study published in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia collected data from 1,507 first-time moms at 3, 6, and 12 months after giving birth, asking when they first attempted vaginal sex. The results: 41 percent of women had sex by 6 weeks, 65 percent by 8 weeks, and 78 percent by 12 weeks. Whether they had complications during the birth was a big factor in how long they waited. New moms who’d had a C-section, episiotomy, or other complications were far less likely to resume having sex at the six-week mark.

The study shows that there’s no universal cutoff for when you should start to ease back into your old sex life. “It is very important to dispel the myth that everything will be ‘back to normal’ by six weeks,” Stephanie Brown, an associate professor at The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and lead author of the study, wrote in an email. Recovery is mental as well as physical: according to Brown, many new moms are too busy or too tired for sex while attending to the demands of a newborn. Others are afraid of the pain of trying to have sex again. These concerns are normal, she says, and you shouldn’t feel guilty about having them.

Whether or not you’re contemplating having a baby any time soon, there’s no reason to walk around with bad information that will only freak you out. Alyssa Dweck, M.D., co-author of V is for Vagina, dispels the biggest myths surrounding sex and pregnancy.

Myth #1: Your Libido Will Tank It’s totally normal for pregnant women to feel a dip in their sex drive, says Dweck, especially in the side-effect-heavy first trimester. But that’s not true for everyone. “The good news is that plenty of other women have a soaring libido when they’re pregnant,” she says. The hormonal changes during pregnancy can cause some women to feel a pleasant spike in sexual desire. And don’t be surprised if your newly arrived curves make you feel irresistibly hot. Plenty of couples manage to maintain an active sex life for all nine months, says Dweck. Just don’t get caught up in what’s “normal.” “There is no normal,” she says. “A lot of it has to do with what your sexual activities were before pregnancy.”

Myth #2: Sex Can Hurt the Baby If you remember that scene fromKnocked Up, you probably know that sex during pregnancy can’t damage a fetus. But this myth still stubbornly lives on. “A lot of times the male partners are more frightened to have sex than the women,” says Dweck. In most cases, sex is 100% safe for mom and baby. There are some exceptions, which your ob-gyn will warn you about. Among other issues, if you have an incompetent (or weakened) cervix, unexplained bleeding, or suffer from a condition called placenta previa, your ob-gyn will advise you not to have sex while pregnant. If you have concerns, just ask your doc, but chances are she’ll give you the green light.

That said, not all positions are fair game. You may have to switch up your routine, as some of your old standbys may not be as comfortable for you. At 15-20 weeks, you’ll want to avoid lying flat on your back (the weight of your uterus can compress your vena cava, causing a dangerous drop in blood pressure)—which means traditional missionary is out, says Dweck. Doggy-style and side-by-side are popular alternatives.

Myth #3: You Should Be Having Sex By 6 Weeks Postpartum If you’re going at it at the 6-week mark, congratulations! Just know that you’re in the minority. Six weeks is the bare minimum for how long you should wait to heal fully after giving birth. Many women will need more time than that. Basically, after you give birth, your delicate bits are raw, exposed, and vulnerable to infection. Plus, your cervix needs time to close up again, says Dweck, and it typically takes about six weeks for that to happen. If you had an episiotomy, it needs to heal completely. (In fact, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute study indicates that only 10% of first-time moms will give birth with an intact perineum.) Having sex too early increases your chances of pain and infection. Dweck recommends external play instead: cuddling, kissing, and general adorableness with your partner. Just make sure to hold off on any activity in or near your vagina until you’re fully healed.

Myth #4: The First Time You Do It Will Hurt “Most women are really afraid of pain with sex after pregnancy,” says Dweck. But if you allow enough time for your body to heal completely, sex won’t be a problem. Keep in mind that new moms become ready for sex at very different rates, as the study shows. When you decide that you’re ready, it doesn’t hurt to be extra-careful. Your estrogen levels dip while you’re nursing, which can cause vaginal dryness, so Dweck recommends using plenty of lube when you decide to take the plunge. Communicate with your partner about your fears, take it slow, and go easy on yourself. And don’t forget to use contraception, says Dweck—you’ll need it even when you’re nursing.

Adoption Fears

What if the child doesn't feel a strong attachment to me and we struggle to bond?
 

Parents preparing for the birth of a child expect an instant, magical, world-moving connection with that baby. Will your love be the same? The short answer is yes. "Adoption looks different -- you're thinking, 'We weren't pregnant for nine months,'" says Bobbi J. Miller, Ph.D., a licensed family therapist who specializes in adoption and an assistant professor of family and community medicine at Saint Louis University. "The attachment process is about building a relationship. That takes time, and that's okay." In fact, many biological parents say they don't feel the immediate bond they thought they would. It often takes days or weeks of caring for the child -- feeding, clothing, changing diapers -- for that everlasting tie to form.
 

In rare cases, adopted kids truly struggle with attachment, a problem often rooted in having been placed for adoption and the worry that it could happen again. This can manifest as low self-esteem, anxiety, or difficulty regulating emotions. Factors raising the risk of attachment issues include significant trauma such as sexual abuse, multiple moves, time in an orphanage, and being older at the time of adoption.
 

Adoptive parents can help kids feel more secure by establishing consistent one-on-one time and talking to the child about plans for the future, according to a fact sheet from the Child Welfare Information Gateway.
 

What if I don't know how to talk to my child about his adoption?
 

As adopted children grow, they may experience feelings of grief and loss about their family, country, or culture of origin, regardless of how old they were when they were adopted and whether or not they have a memory of where they were born. While these feelings often don't kick in until age 7 or 8, when kids start using their "thinking brain," you'll find it much easier to talk about them if you've been open about the adoption from the very beginning. Develop a family narrative, emphasizing that some people become part of a family through marriage, others through birth, and others through being adopted. As your kid gets older, or if she is older when you adopt, talk about her birth family and culture. Tell her, for instance, "You have an amazing singing voice, you must get that from your birth mom." The parent's job is to make the adoption and birth parents part of the conversation so that the child has the opportunity to voice feelings, according to Rita Taddonio, a licensed social worker and head clinician at Spence-Chapin, a private, not-for-profit adoption agency in New York. "Normalizing the topic helps them understand that when they're a little sad about their story, they can talk about it," Taddonio says.
 

How do you know if your adopted child needs help? 

"First of all, if they're not talking about it at all, be a little concerned," Taddonio says. "Change of behavior -- like an easygoing kid who now seems angry and is fighting with friends -- is also a red flag, especially from ages 7 to 12, when they could be stuck somewhere in their feelings about adoption."
 

What if people in my community aren't accepting of our transracial family?
 

American families adopted 8,668 children from other countries in 2012, and the Child Welfare Information Gateway estimates that roughly 14 percent of all adoptions are transracial or transcultural. Even if you live in what you believe to be an accepting family and community, be prepared to counteract prejudiced or racist questions or comments that your adopted child might hear, such as, "Where's the real parent?"
 

"Whether a remark is racially motivated or coming out of ignorance, what's important is that your answer convey the message you want your child to hear," Taddonio says. "Validate by saying, 'I'm the real parent -- you must mean his birth family." Seeing you take a stand and be proactive signals that you understand the gravity of what your child might be feeling, and helps him or her develop the tools needed to problem-solve.
 

"The best thing we did while we were waiting was to join a membership organization for families who adopt from China," says Tricia Corcoran, 49, of Kings Park, New York, who adopted her daughter from China two years ago when the little girl was 1 year old. "I wanted Charlotte to grow up around families like hers, and she's been around them her whole life."
 

Spending time with people of the child's ethnic group helps instill a sense of belonging. The group Corcoran is a part of, Families With Children From China, has chapters all over the U.S., and they organize events like picnics, parades, and culture camps to help families keep the kids connected to their heritage. Adoption agencies and the Child Welfare Information Gateway offer more ideas for honoring your child's birth culture.

Will the child have special needs?
 

A paper by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported that 37 percent of adopted children had special health-care needs, compared with 17 percent of biological children. And while 16 to 20 percent of adopted children have learning disabilities, compared with 8 to 10 percent of children in the general population, that still leaves a vast majority who do not, Taddonio points out.
At the beginning of the adoption process, you'll be asked whether you're open to adopting a child with special needs. You can prepare yourself to answer this by researching what?s involved in caring for these children (the Child Welfare Information Gateway, the U.S. Department of Education, and your adoption agency are good resources). If you've been chosen by a birth mother to adopt an infant, think about how you'll move forward if the child turns out to have special needs, whether at birth or later in life. "Even when you give birth to a baby, you don't know what the child's exact needs will be," Taddonio says. "Every parent should have some exposure to the learning-disabilities spectrum."
The Child Welfare Information Gateway offers links to financial assistance, including tax credits, for adopted children's health-care needs.
 

What if the birth parents change their mind?
 

If you've been chosen by a birth mother to adopt the baby she's expecting, you may worry that she'll have a change of heart. While this isn't common, it can happen. The best way to avoid heartbreak is to work with a reputable adoption agency and encourage the birth parents to take advantage of pre-adoption counseling. "You want them to have really considered the decision," Miller says. If they're exploring their feelings and given the opportunity to express them, there's a smaller chance of surprises later.
 

Another advantage of pre-adoption counseling is that you'll have the resources you need at the ready if the birth mother does choose a different path.

Infertility: Fact and Fiction

Myth 1: It's easy for most women to get pregnant.
 

While it's true that many woman conceive without difficulty, more than five million people of childbearing age in the United States -- or one in every 10 couples -- have problems with infertility. Certain health conditions and factors, such as age, can affect a woman's ability to conceive. For instance, a healthy 30-year-old woman has about a 20 percent chance of getting pregnant each month; while by age 40, her chances drop to about 5 percent a month. But infertility can affect women of any age, and from any background.
 

Myth 2: Men don't have infertility problems.
 

Though it's commonly believed that infertility is a "women's problem," nothing is further from the truth. About 35 percent of all infertility cases treated in the United States are due to a female problem. But 35 percent (an equal number!) can be traced to a male problem, 20 percent to a problem in both partners, and 10 percent to unknown causes.
 

Myth 3: Infertility is a psychological -- not physical -- problem.
 

Well-meaning friends and relatives may suggest "infertility is all in your head" or "if you'd stop worrying so much, you'd get pregnant." But in reality, infertility is a disease or condition of the reproductive system -- and not a psychological disorder. In fact, one or more physical causes are identified in the vast number of infertile couples. So while relaxing, going on vacation, or finding positive ways to de-stress can improve your overall well-being, these lifestyle changes won't solve your infertility problems.
 

Myth 4: Couples who "work" hard enough at having a baby will eventually get pregnant.
 

New methods of diagnosing and treating infertility have improved many couples' chances of having a baby. According to the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), more than half of all couples who pursue treatment will achieve a successful pregnancy. On the other hand, it's important to remember that infertility is a medical disease and that problems sometimes remain untreatable -- no matter how hard a couple "works" at solving them.
 

Myth 5: Once a couple adopts a child, the woman will become pregnant.
 

This particular myth is not only painful for infertile couples to hear, but it's also untrue. First of all, it suggests that adoption is simply a means to an end (a pregnancy), and not, in and of itself, a valid and wonderful way to form a family. Secondly, only about 5 percent of couples who do adopt later become pregnant. This success rate is the same for couples who don't adopt and become pregnant without further treatment.
 

Myth 6: Husbands often leave their wives if they're infertile.
 

As stated earlier, infertility is a medical condition that affects both men and women equally. In fact, about 40 percent of the time, the male partner is either the sole or contributing cause of infertility, according to ASRM. While many couples do find the process of infertility testing and treatment rigorous, stressful, and intrusive (not to mention costly), they do get through it -- together. Many partners also find new and deeper ways of relating to each other and discover that their marriage has become even stronger.
 

Myth 7: Infertile couples will never be happy or fulfilled.
 

Being unable to conceive a much-wanted child (or carry a pregnancy to term) can fill a couple with sadness, grief, anger, despair, and even a sense of personal failure. While it's normal for infertile couples to experience a range of powerful emotions, most people do move through this life crisis successfully and gradually put it into better perspective. For some couples, "moving on" means letting go of their initial dreams of having a baby. Other couples decide to adopt. But in either case, couples do learn that there is life after infertility and find myriad ways to fulfill themselves -- with or without children.

I just came across a very interesting statistic regarding the birthrate in the United States.  According to the CDC/NCHS, NATIONAL VITAL STATISTIC SYSTEM,  American woman gave birth to 400,000 fewer babies in 2013 than they did in 2007.

That explain why it is taking longer to adopt a new born in United States than ever before.