January 24, 2017
Photo: www.theodysseyonline.com
On Monday, January 23, newly-inaugurated President Donald Trump took his first pro-life steps as president by signing an executive order reinstating the “Mexico City Policy,” which bans the government funding of foreign pro-abortion groups, such as International Planned Parenthood, reports LifeSiteNews.
This news, welcomed by pro-lifers and all possessing a Christian conscience, comes on the heels of a new report that abortion numbers have hit an all-time low in America, dropping below a million for the first time since 1975.
On January 17, the Guttmacher Institute released its findings that there were 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women 15 to 44 years old in 2014, totaling 926,190. While this number is still alarmingly high, it represents a 14% decline from the previous survey in 2011, and a significant drop from the 29.3 rate in 1980 and 1981 and the total 1.6 million abortions in 1990.
The National Center for Health Statistics has also released its 2016 data, corroborating the downward trend. According to their data, there were 40.3 abortions for every 1,000 teen girls in 1990, but the rate had plummeted to 16.3 abortions per 1,000 by 2009.
Photo: Guttmacher Institute
According to the Americans United for Life’s most recent annual report, 360 abortion-related measures, including bans on government funding of abortion, restrictions on late-term abortion, ultrasound requirements, and prohibitions on abortions based on sex, race, or genetic abnormality came before 43 states in 2016, reports Christianity Today.
Now further steps are being taken to clean the blood from America’s hands and save babies worldwide.
Trump’s signing of the “Mexico City Policy” comes just one day after the 44th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling which legalized the murder of children in the womb.
The policy was first enacted by President Reagan in 1984 and has been canceled and reenacted by each successive Democratic or Republican president, with President Trump most recently reenacting it and taking money away from foreign organizations that support abortion-infanticide.
While leftists are decrying the move, Trump spokesman Sean Spicer has said that reinstating the policy shows to the American people “and to people of the world... what a value we place on life.”
Photo: liveactionnews.org
With this good news in mind, it is important to remember that there is much yet to be done, including the defunding and outlawing of Planned Parenthood in America, which performs 35% of the nation's abortions. As Human Life International President Fr. Shenan Boquet said, “The Trump administration has kept one important promise to those who put them in office, we pray that these pro-life decisions continue and that all federal support of abortion is ended without delay, taking us closer to the time when all abortions will be ended, all innocent life welcomed, and all mothers supported in their decision to welcome life into the world.”
The Orthodox Church firmly upholds the sanctity of life and condemns abortion in no uncertain terms, as ably testified to by Holy Scripture and the 2,000-year holy Tradition of the Orthodox Church.
