Message to me from Fr. Frank Pavone of "Priests For Life"
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Reporting about the murder of abortionist George Tiller has included misleading references to the frequency of "late term" abortion in the United States.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (the research arm of Planned Parenthood) reports that abortions of pregnancies at 21 weeks or later comprise about 1.1 percent of the nation's abortions, which that same institute also indicates are in the area of 1.21 million. That means over 13,000 babies a year are killed at 21 weeks or beyond. Click here for the Guttmacher statistics.
According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics, late-term abortions (i.e., those of babies 21 weeks or older) are done in many states, which means that there are more than two or three abortionists who do them. A June 1st L.A. Times story refers to the CDC statistics, which show that in 2005, 8,482 abortions were performed on babies 21 weeks or older, but only 459 of them were done in Kansas. Note that the CDC statistics are lower than the Guttmacher statistics, because California (in which about a quarter of the nation's abortions occur), along with a few other states, do not report their abortion statistics to the CDC.
-Fr. Frank Pavone
