“If People Don’t Have More Children, Civilization is Going to Crumble.”

Abortion statistics for the United States are perennially incomplete and perennially out of date, so every January—on the anniversary of Roe v Wade—I try to mitigate this problem by publishing an updated nationwide abortion total well in advance of Guttmacher or the Centers for Disease Dontrol. To do this, I gather state-by-state abortion totals, along with CDC birth numbers, and extrapolate a nationwide total based on all available data. So far, I have 2020 abortion totals from 32 states and hope to have a few more by the time I publish on the 22nd. But the 2020 birth totals are available for all 50 states—and it’s not pretty. 

So far as I can tell, this is the first time in U.S. history that the yearly birth total has decreased in all 50 states. Every single one—and the District of Columbia. This, of course, is the direction we’ve been heading for a decade or more, but it’s never been so pronounced. For "the sixth consecutive year,”…

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If a Man Fathers a Hundred Children…

King Solomon is a conundrum among biblical authors. He is universally acknowledged as the wisest of the lot, and yet it’s hard to call him anything less than a scoundrel and heretic. Heretic may be too harsh; scoundrel is probably too generous. There’s a sense, of course, in which we’re all scoundrels and heretics, but that’s not what I’m talking about. By every indication, the sins of Solomon went well beyond everyday depravity. Not even Paul’s pre-conversion ledger can compete. And whereas Paul’s conversion occurred well before he started writing on God’s behalf, it’s hard to say whether Solomon was ever converted at all. He certainly didn’t write as if he were—at least not consistently. I referenced this passage a few weeks ago, while contemplating the relentless march of death. I’d like to return to it again. It comes from the ninth chapter of Ecclesiastes: 

But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is…

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Honoring Life in Our Steady March Towards Death

One of my favorite movies is a 2005 Cameron Crowe offering that flew almost entirely under the radar. Critics panned it and moviegoers mostly ignored it. Both responses were amiss. Elizabethtown tells the story of a grown son who has to fly across country to attend his father’s funeral. It’s a funny, beautiful, bittersweet movie. But every time I’ve seen it—and I’ve seen it a lot—I’ve had to grapple with the fact that this same journey would someday be mine. And then suddenly it was. My dad retired in January, was diagnosed with lung cancer in May, and died in June. He was an unyielding optimist, to the very end, but not even positive thinking can overcome death. And so I found myself on a plane to Arizona.

Jeffery James Spielman was born in Georgia but grew up in Van Nuys. California. He played baseball at USC and jumped out of helicopters in Vietnam. He was a decorated soldier, but never traded on his past success. My dad’s defining characteristic was a self-deprecating sense of humor. He had a knack for making people laugh—which is a rare and wonderful gift. My dad loved baseball and softball,…

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Michigan abortion rate reaches 30-year high; Minnesota’s falls to post-Roe low (or does it?)

Michigan and Minnesota have much in common. Geographically, they’re roughly the same size and are located in roughly the same location. Only Wisconsin keeps them from being next-door neighbors. Both have Democrats in the governor's mansion; both are represented by Democrats in the Senate. Michigan entered the Union in 1837; Minnesota followed suit 21 years later, and they even sit next to each other in the alphabetical list of states. Both have four professional sports teams (not counting soccer or the WNBA), and their cost of living is almost the same—slightly above average. But while Minnesota’s population is 25% wealthier, Michigan’s is 55% larger. And when it comes to abortion, these two states are even further apart. In Minnesota, 12.6% of unborn children were reportedly killed by abortion in 2020 (excluding spontaneous miscarriage). In Michigan,…

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One Nation Under “Science” with Abortion for All

Nacho Libre is one of my favorite comedies—much to the chagrin of my wife and daughter. It’s drivel to them, but I find it rather brilliant. Still, I little imagined that Nacho’s hygiene-challenged sidekick, Esquelito (aka Steven), would come to so perfectly encapsulate America’s sudden and rather ridiculous obsession with science. “I don’t know why you have to be always judging me,” Steven laments, “because I only believe in science.” What makes this complaint so laughable is the fact that Steven’s knowledge of science is virtually nonexistent. He thinks eagle eggs will bestow magical powers, and he believes he and Nacho are sufficiently talented to be pro wrestlers. Spoiler alert: they’re not. 

Like so many who feign devotion to science today, Steven was simply looking for a way to justify his personal preferences—which included an aversion to baptism and a self-proclaimed hatred of orphans. To that end, Steven embraced a simple mantra: “I don’t believe in God; I believe in science.” The problem of course is that it’s a false dichotomy—something akin to denying…

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U.S. Abortion Total Rises for Second Straight Year

Today marks the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court verdict rendered in Roe v. Wade—the verdict that unilaterally struck down all state prohibitions against abortion. When I first began as a full-time anti-abortion activist, Roe was a mere quarter-century old. I’ve been fighting abortion for a generation, and in every year but two (2006 & 2008) I had the satisfaction of seeing America’s annual abortion total decrease. Until now, that is. For the first time since 1985, the U.S. abortion total has risen two years in a row. It’s not official yet, but enough data are in to make it all but certain. Abortion rose in 2018—which the CDC confirmed this past November—and it looks to have risen again in 2019.

As of this morning, Abort73 has obtained 2019 abortion totals for 26 states. Statistically, these states account for roughly 39% of all U.S. abortions. That’s enough to reasonably extrapolate a total…

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