But what’s caused this reduction? There’s no one thing, but analysts and commentators have suggested a number of contributory factors:

1. Republican state legislation: Laws requiring abortion clinic standards to raise their hygiene and surgical standards ave caused many unscrupulous clinics to close their doors (is there such a thing as a scrupulous abortion clinic?)

2. Improved birth control: People are being extra careful with contraception because they realize that in such tough economic times they cannot afford to risk getting pregnant.

3. Contraception technology: New kinds of long-term intrauterine devices, means people aren’t relying on pills and condoms that sometimes fail.

4. Shift in public attitudes: In 1996 56% of Americans were pro-choice and 33% pro-life. By 2013, only 45% called themselves pro-choice while 48% were pro-life.

5. Ultrasound: Early pregnancy scans make it harder for people to deny what they are seeing is a real human life.

6. Information: The pro-life movement have managed to make far more people aware of the horror of abortion procedures, and especially of late-term abortions.

7. Kermit Gosnell: The horrific conditions and practices in some abortion clinics have appalled even pro-abortionists.

8. The “Juno Effect”: Some think that Juno, the movie about a pregnant teenager who chooses to keep her child may have persuaded younger women and girls to prefer adoption or motherhood to termination. Other films and TV shows have also, probably unwittingly, exposed abortion motives and procedures.

9. Planned Parenthood’s Agenda: I’m a bit wary about these statistics showing a drop in the abortion rate as they are published by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, research arm of Planned Parenthood. I’m suspicious that the pro-abortion movement senses the momentum moving against it and is trying to use statistics to argue that the numbers are reducing because the problem is being fixed by present policies and practices. “So no change required,” they say.

Remember that abortion providers are not required to report statistics. The Washington Post reports that, “The Center for Disease Control draws from state health department reports, and its data are incomplete. For example, California — responsible for an estimated 17 percent of abortions nationwide — does not gather data on the number of abortions.”

10. The Morning After Pill: The morning-after pill aborts by preventing implantation but it’s not counted in these statistics. It’s estimated that 5 million women used this pill between 2006-2010. There are also other easily available drugs that are not approved for use as abortion drugs but which an unknown number of women are using.

So it’s a real mixture of reasons that produce a real mixture of emotions. Cynicism about the stats and fear about how they will be used; joy about (m)any lives saved, anger at the continuing slaughter; gratitude for some of the reasons behind the drop, disappointment at some of the other reasons. Above all, prayer that our politicians and judges will be convicted in their minds and hearts of this horrific sin, publicly repent, make abortion as illegal and illogical as slavery, and make it no longer necessary for caring citizens to spend their days and nights standing outside “clinics” with Babies are Murdered Here signs.

Babies are Murdered Here [Video]

41 Years of Roe v Wade [Video]

How God Healed me From my Abortion

How to Make a Pro-life Argument

If a Day Could Speak – January 22

Relentlessly Call Abortion What it Really Is

How Pro-Life Are You Really?

WORLD | Actively engaged in the abortion battle | Matt Chandler | Jan. 4, 2014

States passed 205 abortion restrictions in three years. That’s totally unprecedented.

Have We Reached the End of Traditional Religion? – Forward.com

Cultural shift seen in 2013 abortion, death penalty data | News OK

When Abortion Hits Home | Her.meneutics | Christianitytoday.com

How To Have An Abortion – Kevin DeYoung

Inklings of Reality: If you are pro-abortion, watch this…

Protect the Children from Chemical Weapons – Desiring God

Redemption for the Scars – The Gospel Coalition Blog

For Adoption or Against Abortion? – Desiring God

When Is a Royal Baby a Fetus? – Atlantic Mobile

In it to win it? | Steve Deace

Ask RC: Should Christians protest at abortion mills? – R.C. Sproul Jr.

Two shocking new arguments for abortion – Denison Forum on Truth and Culture

A Real Happily-Ever-After for Babies With Down Syndrome | Her.meneutics | Christianitytoday.com

When is a person a person? 3 libertarians debate abortion

My Mother’s Adoption: A Tale of Two Texans | RealClearPolitics

Abortion and the Idol of Self

Gosnell: The Killer Had Help | Via Meadia

A Call for Pro-Life Entrepreneurship | CBMW | The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

He Sows, She Sews: Dear Mr. President

I Was an Abortionist | CBMW | The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

“The darkness shall not overcome it.” | The Works of God

Raped, impregnated 13-year-old keeps baby | LifeSiteNews.com

An Open Letter to My Pro-Choice Neighbor by Keith Mathison | Ligonier Ministries Blog

Abortion Promises Unfulfilled | Public Discourse

“Daddy, What’s Abortion?” | Garrett Kell

40 Years after Roe, 64 questions – Kevin DeYoung

Majority of Americans Support Mandatory ObamaCare Contraception Coverage | LifeWay Research

Cranmer: Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have made a foetus

491 Babies Born in Canada & Left to Die (2000-09)

Do Pro-Life Policies Even Matter? – Kevin DeYoung

The Great Tragedy of the 2012 Election | Garrett Kell

Why Your Friends Are ‘Pro-Choice’ (And What to Do About It) – The Gospel Coalition Blog

Answering That Abortion Question | Gentle Reformation

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation

Do Christians Support Aborting Children Conceived in Rape? – The Gospel Coalition Blog

AlbertMohler.com – The Mourdock Moment: Life, Death, and Li es on the Campaign Trail

10 Questions a Pro-Choice Candidate Is Never Asked by the Media – Trevin Wax

Are Pregnancies Even from Rape a Gift from God? | Christianity Today

Being pro-life doesn’t make me any less of a lefty

The End Of Abortion — Evangelical Outpost

Mother who aborted her baby at 39 weeks sent to prison | News | The Christian Institute

Evangelicals seek a future for thousands of frozen embryos – The Washington Post

Abortion and the Black Woman – The Gospel Coalition Blog

Questions for Our Pro-Abortion Friends, Church Leaders, and Politicians – Kevin DeYoung

MercatorNet: Rape, pregnancy and a woman’s freedom

The Child Isn’t The One That Needs Killing

Should Christians refuse to pay taxes when they are used to finance abortions or other great evils?

The Unbearable Wrongness of Roe « Public Discourse

The Tide is Turning : Kingdom People

Emily’s Voice’s videos on Vimeo

Apologetics for the Next Generation – The Gospel Coalition Blog

Case For Life – Only One Issue

Instead, we encounter even greater opposition and hostility. Vociferous and strident abortion rights campaigners like Wendy Davis are hailed as heroines for, wait for it, standing and talking for 10 hours to prevent even the slightest reduction in the term limits for abortions.

Energy and Dollars
Why? Why so much hatred for pro-lifers? Why so much unbridled celebration and joy over defeating any pro-life proposals? Why so much energy and and so many dollars poured into defending and even promoting abortion?

One word.

Guilt.

Though not true in every case, pro-life supporters have often failed to consider the powerful influence of guilt in motivating abortion rights campaigners and in explaining the media’s prejudice and bias against pro-lifers. Take this New York Times pieces as an example.

In My Mother’s Abortion, Beth Merfish explains why she sat with her mother and sister in the gallery of the Texas State Senate to support Wendy Davis in her filibuster against legislation that would limit abortions after 20 weeks.

My mother, Sherry Matusoff Merfish, sat and yelled in indignation beside my sister and me in the Senate gallery. She has two graduate degrees and has built an immensely satisfying career as a political fund-raiser devoted to the election of women who support abortion rights. She also embodies maternal warmth.

My mother chose to abort her first pregnancy, in 1972.

Pro-abortion career
Beth’s mother’s pro-abortion career began with her aborting her baby. When she told her two daughters about her abortion on the eve of their starting college, “Her voice shook but never broke as she described her fear and her decision.” Beth describes her initial stunned reaction and then, eventually, her own conversion to the pro-abortion cause:

I was shocked: at 18, I naïvely believed that only other women — not my family and certainly not my mother — needed this right that our family had long supported. We had volunteered at Planned Parenthood and canvassed for candidates who supported abortion rights. My mother said she wanted to reassure me that I had no reason to doubt her support in any situation I might face in my own life. Although it took a few years for the shock to wear off, knowing made me even more proud of her and more determined to defend reproductive rights.

Beth’s mother recently told four other pro-abortion campaigners about her decision only to discover that they also had either had an abortion or close friends had.

If abortion rights campaigners and their media supporters were polled, I believe you’d find that a hugely disproportionate number of them have had abortions or have encouraged family members to have one. This alone can explain their zeal for their cause, and also the irrational and unreasonable hostility towards any and all pro-life people and proposals.

Rights and wrongs
If we’ve done something we know to be wrong, we can either confess it and find forgiveness through Jesus Christ, or we can try to persuade ourselves and others that what we’ve done is not wrong at all.

And when our powers of persuasion fail to silence our screaming conscience, we’ve got to yell back even louder by dressing up our wrong as a “right,” even as a virtue.

And if anyone comes along with any evidence, image, argument, proposal, or law that might awaken our muffled conscience, and stimulate painful guilt, we’re going to double down on our efforts not just to shut up our conscience but those who are prodding it too. And what “Texas Senate” joy and relief when we succeed.

Change laws AND hearts
While supporting every legislative means to reduce the number of abortions, we must remember that the law cannot shift guilt. Only the Gospel of Christ can do that.

We will never win the minds of our opponents until their hearts have been cleansed by the blood of Christ. And as every Christian knows, if there’s one thing more powerful and motivating than a guilty conscience, it’s a forgiven and cleansed conscience.

So, while proposing new laws with one hand, let’s offer new hearts with the other. While highlighting the guilt of innocent baby blood, let’s also highlight the guilt-cleansing power of Jesus’ blood.

UPDATE: I just came across this, My Mother’s Adoption, an inspiring alternative to My Mother’s Abortion.

Also, David French’s Abortion and the Idol of Self considers how and why people choose to have an abortion.