Over 40 Million Unborn Babies Killed Since Roe

National Right to Life estimates that the toll of unborn life taken since 1973, the year the Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand in Roe v. Wade, now stands at an incredible 40,668,335 abortions. Though, thankfully, the number of abortions has been declining in recent years, surpassing the 40 million mark represents a tragic and deeply troubling milestone to close the 20th century.

The tally is derived by taking the most authoritative count up through the last year these figures were released-1996-extrapolating from the best information available, and adding the "undercount" that is acknowledged to exist.

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), Planned Parenthood's special research affiliate, from 1973 through 1996, there were a combined 34,171,820 abortions in the United States. (One good piece of news is that AGI reported 1,365,730 abortions for 1996, down from a high of 1,608,600 that was reported in 1990.)

While Guttmacher has not published any official figures for any years since 1996, New York Times reporter Gina Kolata wrote in the December 30, 2000, issue an AGI figure of 1,328,000 for 1997.

Using 1,328,000 for 1997, and conservatively estimating that the number of annual abortions neither rose nor declined for 1998, 1999, and 2000, one obtains a total of 39,483,820 for the years 1973-2000.

Guttmacher's numbers are more reliable than those provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) because AGI actually surveys abortion clinics, private doctors' offices, and hospitals, rather than passively accepting reports furnished by state health departments, as the CDC does. (CDC's figures are good for other purposes, however.)

Yet AGI admits that it still probably undercounts the total annual abortions in the U.S. by about 3%. Adding in that additional 3% (1,184,515 abortions) to AGI's numbers and including projections for 1998-2000, the total is 40,668,335. This is the legacy of Roe.