24 million: Numbers of viewers that watched the finale of Dancing with the Stars in 2010
8 million: Population of North Carolina
9.2 million: Abortions in China in 2008
You know about China’s one-child policy already, where the government forces women to have an abortion if they get pregnant while already a mom to one child. Then they sterilize her. But maybe what you aren’t hearing is that the abortion rate among China’s young, unmarried women is skyrocketing out of control. The number of abortions increased from 7.6 million in 2007 up to 9.2 million in 2008 but could be as high as 13 million a year since the earlier numbers only account for hospitals. That’s more than the entire population of Pennsylvania.
A clinic manager explains that the shame is much higher in China over having a baby when one isn’t married than having an abortion. The Chinese describe abortion in more truthful language than here in the US:
“Luckily, in Chinese culture people generally feel that before the actual birth, you don’t yet have an actual person, so we have cases of induced abortion at seven and eight months along,” Li said. “I think this is to China’s advantage from a population control point of view … China has absolutely no need for the so-called ‘right to life’ argument, no need to introduce ideas about abortion as murder and so on.”
But then again, they cater to their new clientele:
Clinics and hospitals are stepping in to meet the demand. Online ads and cheery brochures in pastel colors advertise “painless artificial miscarriage,” private recovery lounges and post-surgery massage meant to help shrink the swollen uterus back to normal size.
The abortion clinics blame the lack of education about birth control on the huge increase in abortions. A study in Spain just came out that blew this theory out of the water. The study followed women of child-bearing age since 1997 and checked in with them every two years on their contraceptive method and whether or not they had a child or an abortion.
The study found overall use of contraceptive methods increased from 49.1% to 79.9% during the 10 year time period ending in 2007. Condom usage rates rose from 21 to 38.8 percent while women were more likely to use the birth control pill (14.2% to 20.3%).
Despite the increase reliance on birth control and contraception, the elective abortion rate increased from 5.52 to 11.49 per 1000 women.
In 2008, a Swedish study revealed that abortions increased even as record numbers of the “morning after pill” were sold.
Abortion is clearly being used as a birth control method. In 1968 Pope Paul VI released Humanae Vitae, the controversial document on human life that said Catholics should not use artificial contraception for several reasons. The document was prophetic and the pope pointed out, among other things, that the widespread use of contraceptives would “lead to conjugal infidelity and the general lowering of morality.” He also predicted that “the man” will lose respect for “the woman” and “no longer (care) for her physical and psychological equilibrium” and will come to “the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.”
How far do we need to look to see both of these prophecies fulfilled? Over 9 million Chinese babies died at the hands of their own parents and millions more in the rest of the world met the same fate. You can’t keep blaming contraceptive failure. What about personal responsibility and the respect for your own and your partner’s body and eternal soul?
