Every month millions of American women buy into media that preaches an empowered life to anyone who will listen. Pick up any issue of Cosmo, watch Oprah, or surf iVillage; you’ll find articles hyping independence, relationships on your terms, and taking charge of your health – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Why then do these outlets promote tolerance for abortion? “Don’t judge a woman until you’ve been in her situation,” is the mantra of the American media.

For a moment, put aside the debate of whether life begins at conception… We are told to be advocates for women and choice, but does abortion kill only one innocent life - or does it set off a chain of events that has the United States on a downward spiral?

Look at the facts:

Worldwide, the lifetime average is about 1 abortion per woman, according to the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. Nearly 50% of all abortions are done on women who have already had at least one abortion.

3,700 abortions are performed in the United States every day.

The number of post-abortive women that report chronic episodes of depression: 44%, drug use: 19%, promiscuous activity: 43%, alcohol abuse: 60%, miscarriage: 2-3 times higher risk for those who have had two or more abortions. These rates are far above the general population.

Suicide rates for women overall is 11.3 per 100,000. Suicide rates for post-abortive women are 34.7 per 100,000. Suicides within the year after birth are 5.9 per 100,000.

There is also evidence of a lower socioeconomic status for women after abortion from changing jobs frequently or inability to hold a job due to disabling episodes of depression, etc.

1.3 million women get abortions every year in the United States – 20% of them begin using drugs to numb the pain. That’s 260,000 new drug users every year – a demographic that doesn’t need to exist.

Drug use has more than doubled in the last 34 years. Drug-related emergency department episodes have also doubled in the last 30 years, with cocaine accounting for 30% of those incidents in 2001 – the all-time high for that particular drug. In one decade alone, marijuana use rose by 604% and heroin by 180%.

Between 1976-1998 over 126 law enforcement officers were killed during drug-related arrests. Those statistics only count warranted drug arrests, not incidental drug involvement.

$160,600,000 – the annual nationwide cost of drug abuse in lost productivity, health care, etc.

The statistics that show 31% percent of women involved in abortions are in or have been in abusive relationships documented by Protection From Abuse Orders, domestic abuse convictions, or crimes resulting in injury or death.

Most relationships fail after abortion. There are no studies to document divorce rates between partners of abortion because 83% of women getting abortions are unmarried at the time.

Pro-abortionists claim the last thing our country needs is to add more unwanted children into the already crowded adoption systems and overwhelmed child welfare agencies. I, on the other hand, cannot think of one person who would disagree with our urgent need to reduce illegal drugs, domestic abuse, disease, and the breakdown of the American family.

If the United States could get back the unfathomable amount of time, money, and resources that go into the problems caused both directly and indirectly by abortion, we could build an exemplary adoption system. No child would go unwanted, no child would feel unloved.

I would never assert that the United States’ problems are solely because we abort babies and discard their mothers. Undeniably though, the crime and social issues tearing down the foundation of our country have dramatically increased since abortion was legalized.

Because of these facts, our advocacy needs to be steered away from a woman’s choice of short-term convenience and instead focused on taking care of both her and our country by denying abortions.

Violent crime, mental illness, and suicides would be reduced, and STDs and reproductive health problems would not be as prevalent. The American family would be more intact and women truly would be empowered if we make the choice for life.

Sources: Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States, Drug Abuse Warning Network, U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, Am. J. Psychiatry, Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, Elliot Institute, Lutherans For Life, Centers For Disease Control, National Abortion Federation