Abortion Numbers Increase in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Department of Health recently released devastating news that abortions in the state rose by 5 percent in 2019.

In 2019, the total number of abortions among Wisconsin women was 6,372, which is an increase of 330 from the previous year. The total number of abortions reported in the state within the year was 6,511, an increase of 287 over the 6,244 abortions reported in 2018. (The discrepancy in numbers is because some out-of-state women had their abortions in Wisconsin.)

Though distressing, Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life said she is not surprised at the results.

“The abortion industry, spearheaded by Planned Parenthood, has been pushing the expansion of chemical abortions, even opening up the Sheboygan facility just for that purpose,” she said.

Dan Miller, State Director of Pro-Life Wisconsin agreed, adding, that Planned Parenthood has ramped up their outreach to pregnant women.

“Planned Parenthood is dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into online marketing,” he said. “When you look up abortion, Planned Parenthood gets an alert and suddenly ads start coming on the person’s phone. Even if a mother suspects she is pregnant and not had a test yet, they are finding them through Internet searches. They have built this infrastructure to accommodate them with chemical abortions.”

Data from the report demonstrates the shift away from surgical abortions to chemical abortions: while surgical abortions fell from 71 percent to 66 percent, the rate of chemical abortions rose from 29 percent to 33 percent.

Wisconsin Right to Life’s legislative/PAC director, Kristen Nupson, said the results confirm their hunch that while surgical abortions have decreased in the state, chemical abortions are increasing in an alarming rate.

“Wisconsin Right to Life believes that every life lost to abortion is a tragedy,” said Weininger. “We mourn the loss of these 6,511 lives and will continue to work each day until every unborn life is valued and protected.”

With the new governmental administration beginning, Miller said elected officials are prepping to wash away all pro-life laws.

“Planned Parenthood sued the state of Wisconsin to eradicate all pro-life laws, which is not going to happen,” he said. “Even if they win, it will be appealed and when it does get appealed, it will go to the 7th Federal District Court and I am confident that they will rule in our favor.”

Despite the results of the report, Miller agreed it could have been much worse, but the results came at an inopportune time.

“Americans and Wisconsinites are just getting acclimated to what the political landscape might be coming Jan. 20 and are letting reality settle in,” he said. “They can pack the Supreme Court all they want because they never helped us before. If you want a recipe to fix America, stop killing all the babies. Pro-Life Wisconsin is America’s life insurance policy — making sure babies get born.”

Alycia Johnson, executive director of Care Net Family Resource Center in Kenosha and Racine, explained that a colleague’s research revealed that a disproportionate rate of Black and Hispanic babies are being aborted.

“From a standpoint of the abortion movement, I absolutely am not surprised the abortions have increased,” she said. “If you are a Black person and you turn on the news, you are inundated with news articles debating whether or not your life has value if you are already born.”

Johnson recalled a day that she had a young Black man in her center during the summer riots in Kenosha. He told her that he wanted to be a father, but no one believed he could be.

“He said when he turned on the news, he heard he was more likely to commit a crime. He said out in the community there weren’t enough Black, consistent fathers (70 percent of Black children grow up in single family homes) setting an example for him. This is the reality of his every day,” she said. “Based on these things, would you want to bring a child into the world? We need to promote parenting, family, and marriage in a more stable way. We need to highlight young, black men and women, married couples, and families doing incredible things. They do exist and I know some of these amazing families.”

By not allowing Blacks and Hispanics to have a positive voice in their communities Johnson said, they will continue to doubt their self-worth and ability. Johnson explained that abortion rates would decrease if their self-worth increases. She also said she believes abortion will increase this year as well due to COVID-19 and so many losing jobs.

“In these cases, it is important that we step in as a country, and for me the church community, to ensure people have adequate resources to parent a child,” she said.

Another way Johnson believes the efforts of Planned Parenthood can be thwarted is through more pregnancy help centers.

“Recently, I’ve learned a lot in my research. For example, I discovered there are 600 Planned Parenthoods in the U.S. and there are 1,100 Care Net affiliates,” she said. “We need to raise awareness for alternatives. The beauty of America is we are a free market. Rather than focusing on access to Planned Parenthood, we need to raise awareness to the fact that there are alternative options in every state. Care Net does not offer abortions, but several of the other services that Planned Parenthood does. There are also other alternative services to Planned Parenthood. As a nation, we need to be focusing on presenting that there are multiple options.”