Barak Obama reported at the Saddleback Forum that abortion statistics have gone up during the Bush Administration. But the good news is, Obama was wrong. The New York City-based Guttmacher Institute has been conducting abortion statistics since 1974. They say that the abortion rate in the USA fell to its lowest point in more than 30 years. A USA Today article released just before the 35th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion reported the 2005 statistics (the most recent year available). They said:

The number of abortions, which peaked in 1990 with 1.6 million, dropped to an estimated 1.2 million in 2005. That's 8% fewer than 2000.

The abortion rate, which is the proportion of pregnancies that end in abortion, dropped by 9% to 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44, in 2005. The peak --29.3 abortions per 1,000 women-- was in both 1980 and 1981. In 1974, a year after abortion became legal, the rate was 19.3.

The number of abortion providers in the USA also dropped to 1,787, representing a 2% decline from 2000.

Just over one in five pregnancies in 2005 (22%) resulted in abortion, down from one in four pregnancies (25%) in 2000.

Psalm 139:13-14; 15-16 tells us this: "You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. . . I am fearfully and wonderfully made. . . My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them."

Since 1973 when Roe vs. Wade became law, more than 49 million babies have been aborted in the United States. That's 49 million babies formed by God in their inward parts, covered in their mother's womb, fearfully and wonderfully made, skillfully wrought, and described in God's book. The numbers are down, and that's good. But we're not there yet. We've got to keep fighting to stop this horrible act.