Earlier this week, the Minnesota Department of Health released its annual report on abortion in Minnesota, finding that 9,922 abortions were committed in Minnesota in 2019. This marks a slight increase from the year before when there were 9,910 abortions committed in Minnesota.
Of those 9,922 abortions, 8,252 (83%) were performed after fetal heartbeat was detectable via ultrasound. Three babies were born alive during botched abortion procedures, but all three died shortly after—possibly abandoned to die of neglect. The report also revealed that 43% of the abortions performed in Minnesota were covered by public assistance, a sobering reminder that taxpayer dollars are being used to perpetuate abortion.
60% of the women who had an abortion in Minnesota last year had given birth at least once before, and 38% had previously had at least one abortion. Planned Parenthood continues to play an overwhelming role in Minnesota’s abortion industry, and in 2019 it committed 65% (6,451) of the abortions performed in our state, marking a steady increase in the percentage of abortions carried out by Planned Parenthood in Minnesota each year.
These numbers are heartbreaking because they are so much more than numbers. These numbers are children who never got to see the light of day, or who died minutes after a botched abortion procedure. These numbers are women whose lives will never be the same because they believed the lie that abortion was the best option, bereaved by their own actions and left to process regret, loss, and depression in a society that refuses to acknowledge the effects of abortion. And these numbers represent abortion workers who sear their own consciences on a daily basis for the sake of an industry built on the destruction of human life. Minnesota’s annual abortion report is a tragic reminder of the brokenness of the world that we live in.
And yet, there is hope. Overall, abortion is in decline in Minnesota. In 1980, abortion rates were almost twice what they were last year and the past three decades have seen a steady decrease in the number of abortions performed per year. 2019 marks the second year in a row that fewer than 10,000 abortions were committed in Minnesota and the fourth year out of the past eight that Minnesota’s abortion numbers were below 10,000. Abortion survivors, post-abortive women, and former abortion workers are exposing the lies of the abortion industry.
God is greater than the evil of the abortion industry. We must remember that and press on as we continue to fight against abortion and speak truth and love to abortion-minded women and people in the abortion industry, praying that God will change hearts and minds. The 2019 abortion report is an urgent reminder that we must continue working to build a culture of life so that abortion becomes not only illegal but unthinkable.
