Encounter News reports that data has come out showing that 28% of Gen Z were aborted – almost one-third. This is all abortions performed from 1997 to 2012 in an estimate of 800 to 900 million abortions within those 16 years, also making it the leading cause of death across the world.
These statistics are from the Guttmacher Institute, CDC, U.N. World Population Prospects, and World Health Organization.
Frank Pavone, founder of Priests for Life, spoke with Jenna Ellis on Jenna Ellis in the Morning about this high statistic, noting that God’s punishment often follows sin. The wandering journeys of the Israelites often followed moral failure, he said.
“You hear speculation, ‘well, is God going to punish us with a nuclear attack or something?’ Well, when you look at these numbers of what abortion has done, that is the equivalent of a nuclear attack, multiple nuclear attacks,” Pavone states.
The real effect of abortion
He follows up with the basic yet powerful fact that nothing takes more human life than abortion, whether on the national or world level. This includes disease, violence, terrorism and war.
“We've got to start with that because a lot of people who are not persuaded by the moral and philosophical arguments against abortion will be persuaded by the statistics. Statistics are a powerful weapon,” says Pavone.
However, he warns that some statistics from institutions are more reliable than others.
“The CDC numbers are always lower than the reality because they rely on voluntary reporting from the states. And some of the states, most notably California, the largest abortion state, do not report. The Guttmacher Institute, now those numbers are going to be higher because they go out and look for the statistics by contacting the abortion clinics directly,” Pavone informs.
It’s important to understand that CDC numbers are actually much higher, and the numbers given to the Guttmacher Institute from abortion clinics are not reliable, Pavone said. The numbers are made murkier by the fact that abortions pills being sold does not equate to the number of pills taken and by whom.
“So, sometimes it's a tricky thing. However, all the numbers show us a very, very dire picture,” says Pavone.
But, Pavone says that, once people know the statistics, they can start using them. The statistics can be placed in social media posts, turned into graphs, illustrated on the map of the U.S., and even introduced into sermons.
“Pastors can bring these into their sermons. I've preached so many times where the most impactful thing that people came away with were the staggering numbers,” states Pavone.
He stresses it is important to use these numbers to back up what you are saying.
A Barna Group statistic shows that only 29% of Gen Z believe that abortion is morally wrong. However, pro-lifers have been claiming that this is the pro-life generation.
Pavone says that slight changes in the question drastically change polling results. With generic question of pro-life or pro-choice, the answers lean more toward pro-choice. But asking deeper, granular questions, such as ‘how far into the pregnancy should abortion be allowed?’, Pavone says the numbers for pro-life grow.
“Once you start asking, ‘Okay, well, how long should she have the choice?’ I mean, once you get behind three months, most people are going to say, ‘OK, she's had enough time to make her choice’,” says Pavone. “After that, the baby starts to feel pain, and the viability is getting earlier and earlier. These babies need to be protected even when they're in the womb.”
Clearing up the definition
Strategically, Pavone says a basic definition of abortion should be asked before the question of morality and legality come into question.
He compares asking “what do you think about abortion?” to “do you thinks it’s okay to inject poison into a baby’s heart?”
“But when you frame that question the other way, it's like, ‘no, of course not. I think that's terrible if the baby has a beating heart. I mean, a heartbeat is a sign of life, and it's bad to stop a beating heart’,” Pavone illustrates.
Pavone explains that those many choice advocates don't know when the heart starts beating, how early it happens, and how developed the baby is early in the pregnancy.
“When people hear the word abortion, are they thinking about cutting off arms and legs or are they thinking about women's health and constitutional freedom of choice?” Pavone states. “I always say to people, ‘you think you have an opinion about abortion? When's the last time that you saw one?’”
He points out that medical shows do not show the reality of abortion, but they will show all different surgeries and medical transplants.
Critics point to Grey’s Anatomy for showing a girl taking an abortion pill like it was ibuprofen and showing none of the physical, emotional, and psychological effects after the fact.
“They didn't show the hand or the face falling out of her body onto the bathroom floor. That's the reality of it. They see these baby parts coming out of them all of a sudden,” Pavone states. “Grey's Anatomy, unfortunately, with that episode you described – what are they doing? They're reinforcing the denial. They are not showing an abortion.”
Pavone even contrasts a surgical abortion, where they do not let the patient see the baby parts. Women can believe for years that only unformed tissue, and not a baby, was removed. That’s another reason why the fallout of chemical abortions is so shocking to women after they have one.
“We know it because in the healing ministries that we do for those that have had abortions, more and more people are taking these chemical drugs of abortion, they're coming to us faster because the denial breaks sooner,” Pavone says.
The church’s role
Pavone says that they church should respond with the God’s words ‘I am with you’ to those who feel like having or have had an abortion.
“We got to let them know. We're not just pointing fingers of condemnation to say, abortion is wrong, don't do it. We are extending hands of mercy and saying, ‘take our hand,’” says Pavone.
The church needs, he reinforces, to spread the message that no abortion is necessary and that no abortion is unforgivable if repented. As more churches partner with pregnancy centers, pastors need to speak up to give hope to those in pain from their abortion as congregations help those struggling with pregnancy to do the right thing.
“We let the blood of Jesus speak louder than the blood that they shed of their own babies,” states Pavone. “And we say to them those same four words. I am with you. We are with you. God is with you. God's church is with you.”
