Abortion groups are complaining and pro-life groups are celebrating the fact that abortion clinics in the U.S. are closing on a regular basis.
The pro-life group Operation Rescue reports that a total of 73 abortion clinics shut down in the past 12 months, the second highest single-year closing ever.
The closings include a combination of facilities that perform surgical abortions and those that provide abortion medicines only.
According to their new survey, “73 abortion facilities shut down for all or part of the year. The total number of all remaining abortion clinics in the U.S. is 739. Surgical abortion facilities account for 551 of that total while the number of medication-only abortion facilities stands at 188.” Operation Rescue says the closing total is a drop of 25% overall in the past five years.
The group reports that out of 60 surgical center closings, 47 were permanent, while the remaining 13 stayed open “primarily due to court action that enjoined abortion safety laws that had shut down the substandard facilities.”
An additional thirteen facilities that provide abortion drugs only made up the remaining number of 73 total closures. Those 13 closures of abortion drug facilities more than doubled the six closures last year.
The high-water mark for abortion clinic closings was 2013 when 93 were closed, but the totals for 2014 outpace 2012 when only two-dozen closed.
Troy Newman, President of the Kansas-based Operation Rescue, said, “We are continuing to witness the implosion of the abortion cartel in America. The only things that are preventing total collapse are court injunctions that are blocking several state abortion safety laws from being enforced. Once those laws clear the courts, we expect to see even more dangerous abortion facilities close. This is great news for women and babies because when abortion clinics close, lives are saved.”
Newman reports, “The greatest number of closed facilities took place in Texas as the result of the 2013 abortion law known as HB2. Eleven surgical and three medication-only facilities shut down permanently over the course of 2014.”
He points out, “Closures far outpaced clinic openings. Fifteen facilities either added surgical abortions or opened for the first time.”
Newman noted this new trend of changing from surgical to medical abortions is likely a reaction to new state laws regulating abortion clinics: “As new states laws add safety standards for surgical abortions, we are seeing the beginnings of a new trend. Abortion providers who cannot or will not comply with the higher standards have, in some cases, dropped surgical abortions in favor of medical abortions so they did not have to become licensed.” Said Newman, “This allows incompetent abortionists to continue exploiting women for money while evading the need to increase patient safety.”
Abortion groups have raised the alarm at the effectiveness of the new pro-life strategy of increasing what abortion groups see as onerous new regulations like mandating abortion facilities become more like ambulatory surgical centers and that abortionists get admitting privileges at the local hospital. Abortion groups lament that more of these laws have passed in the States over the past two years than in the previous decade combined.
According to Newman’s group, in 1991 there were 2,176 surgical abortion clinics in the United States, and “since then 75% of those facilities have closed.” The group notes that as clinics close, abortion numbers have also started to fall. There were 1.6 million abortions in 1990 and slightly more than 1 million last year.
“No matter how one views the numbers, they show that we are winning,” said Newman. “As the truth about abortion abuses and other dangers become public and are followed by new laws that increase protections for women and their babies, we can only expect the decline of the abortion cartel to continue until it collapses altogether.”
Newman’s group keeps a listing of all abortion clinics in the U.S. at AbortionDocs.org. The site also documents what it calls “known abuses” at some of the facilities. Operation Rescue also keeps a list of closed abortion facilities.