One
Dynamic:
Clinic Law Increases Accountability
Data released by the Michigan Department of Community Health
showed a 12.4 percent increase in the number of reported abortions
performed in
2013. The total number of abortions performed rose from 23,230, to
26,120.
While the increased numbers are tragic, they are not unexpected
and have
predicted explanations. A law passed in 2012 requiring abortion
clinics to be
licensed caused 5 abortion clinics to close in the early months of
2013. The
location of those closed clinics corresponds with the four
counties (Muskegon,
Wayne, Macomb, and Oakland) that showed substantial increases in
abortions,
accounting for the increase in the number of reported abortions.
Those closed abortion businesses were suspected
of violating
the state reporting law. As those abortion businesses closed,
their clients
went to other abortion businesses; previously unreported abortions
may be
reported now. There was also a shocking 44.4 percent increase in
late-term
abortions (after 20 weeks), which may be attributed to better
reporting and an
influx of women from Ohio after abortion businesses in Toledo
closed.
In Muskegon, Right to Life of Michigan
identified anomalies
in past abortion data. The sole abortion business in Muskegon was
not reporting
abortions for two years prior to being shut down for dangerous
conditions. It
is suspected that women from Muskegon County are now traveling to
other
abortion businesses that follow state reporting laws. Metro
Detroit may be
experiencing something similar, four clinics from that area closed
in 2013
following passage of the Prolife Omnibus Act (PA 499).
The numbers could reflect an actual increase in
abortions,
possibly due to the especially difficult economic times Detroit is
facing as
the city undergoes bankruptcy. About 29 percent of the 2013
increase was
reported in Detroit, despite the city having only 7 percent of the
state's
population. Abortion continues to disproportionately devastate the
black
community, with more than 50 percent of all abortions being
performed on black
women, even though they are only 16 percent of the female
population. Recent
media coverage showing Detroit’s maternal death rate at triple the
national
rate proves that abortion fails to improve women’s health.
The trend of declining abortions committed on
girls under
the age of 18 continued. That number dropped to under 1,000 for
the first time
ever. In 2012, 1,035 minor abortions were reported. The reported
figure of 971
in 2013 represents another 6 percent decrease. Since 1990,
abortions among
minors has fallen 75 percent.
