2011: Proving to be a Great Year in the Pro-Life Movement | General Pro Life Discussion | Forum

Lifesite News is reporting that several Planned Parenthood clinics are closing and merging affiliates across the state of Texas as a result of a new law that takes away the organization's funding.

Texas Right to Life Legislative Director John Seago told LifeSiteNews.com that his organization called over 70 Planned Parenthood clinics in Texas and confirmed six additional closures in Arlington, Mesquite, Plano, Sherman, Terrell, and Waxahachie. All seven locations are scheduled to be closed by the end of September.

Additionally, Planned Parenthood’s website indicates that a center in Groesbeck is “temporarily closed.”

“Even though these clinics are family planning clinics, so there’s not actually any abortions being provided at the clinics that are closing their doors, there’s no mistake that these are abortion-minded clinics that are sending women to abortion clinics,” Seago commented.

He also said that a planned merger between Planned Parenthood’s Waco affiliates in Central Texas and their Austin affiliates is believed to be related to budget cuts, based on press reports of layoffs related to the merger.

The organization has also announced a merger of Louisiana affiliates with affiliates in Houston and Southeast Texas.

Elizabeth Graham, Director of Texas Right to Life, called the developments “historic for the pro-life movement and the protection of women’s health.”

Texas is not alone in its pro-life victories. Across the country, the pro-life movement is seeing historic gains in legislation that protects the unborn. LifeNews provides details on the dramatic increase in laws that will lead to a reduction in the number of abortions performed in the US.

Just halfway through the year, pro-life lawmakers have already exponentially increased the number of pro-life laws on the books, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which issued a report decrying the number of laws protecting women and unborn children — which will undoubtedly result in reducing abortions in the states where they have been adopted.

“In the first six months of 2011, states enacted 162 new provisions related to reproductive health and rights. Fully 49% of these new laws seek to restrict access to abortion services, a sharp increase from 2010, when 26% of new laws restricted abortion. The 80 abortion restrictions enacted this year are more than double the previous record of 34 abortion restrictions enacted in 2005—and more than triple the 23 enacted in 2010. All of these new provisions were enacted in just 19 states,” Guttmacher indicates.

This chart from Planned Parenthood's own research firm, the Guttmacher Institute, depicts graphically the sharp increase in legislation that restricts abortion.

Let's hope 2012 is an even bigger success!

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