Abortion Numbers Appear to be Rising in U.S.

One of the odd behaviors of anti-abortion protesters is to shout prayers within ear shot of women entering clinics. Prayers to end abortions are being ignored by God. 

After several years of a decline in abortions due to better birth control technology, abortions are now rising slowly but steadily. The reported numbers come with a disclaimer they do not include all states and may not include all abortions in the reporting states. People who follow this data say, however, it likely represents an upward trend.

Abortion prohibitionists are giving it their all. You can't drive very far without seeing an abortion prohibition highway sign. Vote seeking politicians are forever pandering with their legislation and promises to end abortion. How, then could abortions be rising?

I've been reading a book about Al Capone. As a side note I'll mention why I picked up this book in Barnes and Noble. My tiny town, Lanyon, Iowa, gave birth to a somewhat famous person named George E. Q. Johnson. The house he grew up in is still in that otherwise forlorn town. Johnson ended up a lawyer in Chicago and through political connections became the Federal Prosecutor in that part of Illinois. After many had failed, he was successful in putting Al Capone in prison for ten years. Johnson came up with a strategy no one else had tried. Instead of charging him with robbery, extorsion, alcohol and murder, and seeing all witnesses disappear, Johnson successfully charged Capone with tax fraud. 

The book explains how Capone and his colleague became rich and famous. It was prohibition. When prohibition passed Congress, there was little opposition. Only after it was put into effect was its folly made obvious. People wanted to consume alcohol. Violations of the law were done in the open. Consumption remained high. When Congress passed the legislation, it assumed other branches of government would fund enough law enforcement to make prohibition work. They did not. Probably they could not. Bribes of officials became common. It was as if our own government made a huge gift to organized crime. We did it again with marijuana. 

Now some politicians want repeat the same mistakes with abortion prohibition. Prohibitionists were driven by religion. Today abortions would end if they could be ended. Millions, perhaps billions, are spent trying to stop them. Instead they are rising. Abortion prohibition will have little to no effect on abortion numbers.