Why Abortion Mill Closures Are Not Massive Victories

Written By Editor

Planned Parenthood and other brick-and-mortar abortion providers are closing their doors across the country, and major Pro-Life establishment organizations are heartily celebrating.

Students for Life recently lauded the closure of four Planned Parenthood abortion mills in Michigan, emphatically declaring that “the death industry is collapsing under its own weight” and insisting that “fewer Planned Parenthoods” means there are now “fewer babies killed.”

They even told social media followers that “this is what victory looks like.”

Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life, similarly praised the recent closure of four abortion mills in Iowa and four others in Minnesota with a modestly viral social media post.

This victory lap from Students for Life extends far beyond recognizing positive aspects of Planned Parenthood facilities closing and asserts that the development is a massive victory.

But such claims fail to account for self-induced abortion leading to record levels of abortions across the country, a reality that in many ways explains the closure of these abortion mills.

Mills Closing

Planned Parenthood facilities and other abortion mills have been closing in conservative states with new abortion regulations targeting surgical abortion ever since the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

But they have also been somewhat unexpectedly closing in progressive states with highly permissive abortion laws.

There were at least seventeen abortion mill closures last year in states where abortion has not been banned for third parties like abortionists, as well as seventeen other closures since the start of this year. Planned Parenthood alone has closed four facilities in Illinois, four in Michigan, and one in New York, all of which have enshrined new protections for child sacrifice, including surgical abortion.

The main reason for these closures, which occurred despite legal protection for abortions, is likely less related to new legislation than to new market forces working against brick-and-mortar facilities.

Pills Flowing

Like food deliveries and movie streaming, the broader economy has steadily moved away from buying products and services at brick-and-mortar establishments and toward buying products through convenient internet-enabled options. The burgeoning market for child sacrifice is no exception.

The advent of abortion pills now accounts for nearly two-thirds of abortions that occur within our medical system, a trend that has been developing for the past two decades. The economics of running a brick-and-mortar abortion mill have also shifted, and abortion facilities that dispense abortion pills must now compete with the many cheaper and more convenient online-only providers that have emerged in recent years.

Biden administration officials permanently ended the requirement that abortion pills must be dispensed in-person, further encouraging the growth of these online-only providers.

Planned Parenthood and other physical abortion mills, which must hire staff and pay for brick-and-mortar facilities, have far more overhead expenses than online-only alternatives. Many online vendors offer abortion pills for a fraction of the cost of visiting an in-person abortion mill.

The result has been an increased popularity of abortion pills not only in progressive states, but also in conservative states because of laws barring prosecution of women who have abortions. 

None of these realities account for self-induced abortions outside of the medical system, where community networks often provide abortion pills for free, and other ways of self-inducing abortion beyond abortion pills are constantly arising. These methods are difficult to track and count.

Kills Growing

The reality of self-induced abortion has helped to fuel the highest abortion levels across the country in more than a decade, even months and years after the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Despite the closure of physical abortion mills, the murder of preborn babies made in the image of God has not slowed. The market for child sacrifice has merely shifted to new domains.

Students for Life may declare that there are now “fewer babies killed” and tell their followers that “this is what victory looks like” after the closure of abortion mills. But murdering preborn babies is always heinous in the eyes of God, whether carried out by an abortionist in a brick-and-mortar abortion mill or by a mother in the comfort and anonymity of her own bedroom or bathroom.

The good news is that there is a solution to these trends. We must ensure that murdering anyone is illegal for everyone.

Rather than taking victory laps when specific methods of murder are less accessible, we must work to advance the equal protection of the laws for preborn babies. We must ensure that no matter what method of murder is used, the same laws already protecting born people also protect preborn people.

Editor
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