By Staff, World News Magazine
ATLANTA, Ga. – Abortions are on the decline in the United States, though numbers remain shockingly high in New York City, according to a CDC report released over Thanksgiving.
The study used voluntary data from 44 states, New York City, and the District of Columbia. The states not included in the study didn’t provide data for each of the ten years.
From 2001 to 2010, the number of reported legal abortions in the United States fell by 9 percent.
The number of teenagers getting abortions dropped most significantly, probably due in part to the overall drop in teenage pregnancies. For that 10-year period, the abortion rate among teenagers fell about 30 percent.
The number of abortions in New York City alone remains incredibly high: 83,750 in 2010. That amounts to 694 abortions for every 1,000 live births.
No other jurisdiction approaches that high of an abortion ratio.
Other city health reports have shown that almost 40 percent of pregnancies in New York end in abortion. Most shocking in the CDC’s New York numbers: 82 percent of abortions in the city were performed on African-American or Hispanic women.
The authors noted that the CDC numbers, because they are voluntary, significantly underreport abortions compared to the more fully researched Guttmacher Institute studies.
For 2008, the CDC reported 825,564 abortions while Guttmacher reported 1.21 million abortions. But the CDC trends are still meaningful.
The CDC released another report today compiled from its own data as well as outside sources like Guttmacher that shows the abortion rate has fallen 32 percent since 1990.
Supreme Court Allows Texas Abortion Law to Stand
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A divided U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas’ new abortion law to stand while litigation continues in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
This means that the law restricting abortion centers took effect Oct. 31, and as a result, about a third of the abortion centers in the state will close.
The 5th Circuit temporarily allowed the portion of the law that requires that abortionists have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, after a lower court had blocked that part of the law.
The circuit court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the law in January, which will be an expedited hearing.
The law’s challengers had submitted an emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the law as litigation continues. Justice Antonin Scalia handles emergency applications from Texas, but likely due to the controversial nature of the law, he had his eight colleagues weigh in.
Obama Tightens Reins On Non-Profits
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Obama administration has proposed rules to curb political campaigning by nonprofit groups.
The rules would prohibit certain nonprofit groups from campaign activities such as running ads, registering voters, or distributing campaign literature.
The Department of the Treasury says the rules are designed to create “clear-cut definitions” for nonprofit organizations that engage in political activity. Conservatives say the change would give the Internal Revenue Service broader leeway to target the White House’s political opponents.
The changes would affect groups with a 501(c)4 “social welfare” designation. Religious and charitable organizations classified as 501(c)3s are already limited from participating in many political activities.
Presbyterian Church (USA) Acquits Homosexual Pastor of Violating Vows
CROMWELL, Conn. – A pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been found not guilty of violating his ordination vows for marrying his same-gender partner in 2009.
Rev. John Merz married William Starowski in Connecticut, where homosexual marriage is legal.
Christian College Allows Homosexual Faculty
Harrisonburg, Va. – Eastern Mennonite University said it would not fire professors in homosexual relationships during a six-month “listening period.”
The incident at Eastern Mennonite University highlights the failures at the Coalition of Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), which for many years had been a fairly reliable indicator of Christian colleges that were really Christian; that is, those colleges that took their Christian distinctives seriously.
It’s not clear what Eastern Mennonite University will do, but if it allows openly homosexual faculty and is not booted out of the CCCU, some current members will likely head for the exit door.
Supreme Court To Rule on Obamacare’s Contraceptive Mandate
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 26 agreed to rule on the element of Obamacare that pro-life Americans find most objectionable: The contraceptive mandate.
Under the healthcare law, businesses must provide health insurance plans for employees that include coverage of contraceptives, including abortifacients like Plan B and Ella.
The case involves fundamental questions of religious liberty and may set an important precedent for how the government handles religious protections.
Dozens of businesses have sued the federal government over the mandate, including Hobby Lobby, a 13,000-employee craft store chain owned by David Green and his family, who as evangelical Christians object to paying for abortifacients.
An appeals court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby earlier this year, but other court rulings have been divided on the contraceptive mandate, setting the matter up for a showdown in the Supreme Court.