127 Abortion Clinics Have Closed Since 2015: Life Is 'Winning,' Pro-Life Group Says

A new report by a pro-choice organization has drawn opposite reactions along the abortion divide by showing that dozens of independent abortion clinics have closed in the past five years.

The 18-page report by the Abortion Care Network says 127 independent abortion clinics have closed since 2015, including at least 14 this year and 27 in 2019. The Network is an association of independent, community-based abortion providers.

Nearly three-fifths (58 percent) of abortions in the U.S. are performed by independent abortion clinics, according to the report. Planned Parenthood performs 37 percent of the nation’s abortions, the report says.

Since 2012, the number of independent abortion clinics has fallen 34 percent – from 510 to 337 today.

Time reported on the news under the headline, “Abortion Clinics Are Rapidly Closing. Many Won’t Come Back.”

Forty-one independent clinics have closed in the past two years. Of those, 76 percent perform abortions after the first trimester.

Independent clinics are a major source of late-term abortions: 81 percent of U.S. clinics that provide abortions after 22 weeks are independent clinics.

The report blamed the closures on two reasons: finances and pro-life laws that restrict abortions.

“Medically unnecessary abortion restrictions and financial barriers make it challenging for many clinics to keep their doors open at all,” the report said. “These challenges increase for clinics that provide care as pregnancy progresses, making them more vulnerable to closing. This, in turn threatens to make already-scarce abortion care beyond the first trimester increasingly difficult to access.”

But pro-lifers on social media celebrated the news.

“Life. Is. Winning. & we’re here for it!” Students for Life tweeted with a link to the Time story.

The following is from Pro Life Across America

18 days from conception, heart begins to beat, with the baby’s own blood.
28 days from conception a baby has eyes, ears, and even a tongue!
28 days from conception: Muscles are developing along the future spine. Arms and legs are budding.
30 days: Child has grown 10,000 times to 6-7mm (1/4”) long. Brain has human proportions. Blood flows in veins.
42 days: Skeleton is formed. Brain coordinates movement of muscles and organs. Reflex responses have begun.
42 days: Brain waves can be detected, the jaw forms, including teeth and taste buds. The unborn baby begins to swallow amniotic fluid. Fingers and toes are developing.
45 days from conception: The unborn baby is making body movements, a full 12 weeks before the mother may notice such stirrings. By seven weeks the chest and abdomen are fully formed. Swimming with a natural swimmer’s stroke in the amniotic fluid, the baby now looks like a miniature human infant.
44-45 days: Buds of milk teeth appear, and the unborn baby’s facial muscles develop. Eyelids begin to form, protecting the developing eyes. Elbows take shape. Internal organs are present, but immature. 99% of muscles are present, each with its own nerve supply.
52 Days: Spontaneous movement begins. The unborn baby then develops a whole collection of moves over the next 4 weeks including hiccuping, frowning, squinting, furrowing the brow, pursing the lips, moving individual arms and legs, head turning, touching his/her face, breathing (without air), stretching, opening the mouth, yawning and sucking. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. Psalms 139:14-16