2019 Was a Great Year for the Unborn

As we get prepared to flip the calendar to 2020, it’s worth looking back to see what pro-lifers accomplished in the last 12 months, and how the pro-abortion movement unwittingly aided our efforts.

The year began with 169 House Republicans and 49 Republican senators vowing to stand with President Trump — the most pro-life president we’ve ever had — as he vetoed any bill that weakened the pro-life provisions that protect our taxpayer dollars from funding the abortion industry. And the year is ending with a new rule finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services that requires insurers to issue separate bills for abortion coverage to those who bought health insurance on an Affordable Care Act exchange in their state. This rule strengthens the president’s resolve to protect taxpayer money from funding abortion.

Throughout 2019, House Republicans kept up their efforts to initiate a vote on the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act by introducing and signing en masse a “discharge petition” on the matter and sponsoring a hearing attended by dozens of Republican lawmakers.

House Democrats continue to block a vote on this bill. Republican efforts have done a lot to expose the abortion extremism of the Democrats. The 2020 presidential hopefuls are also doing their part in exposing their extremism, with all but one of them voicing support for abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason, without restrictions or conditions.

On the state level, 2019 saw the passage of many laws designed to protect the unborn from the earliest stages. Although federal courts have blocked most of these laws, President Trump’s phenomenal success in seating judges — 181 and counting — will ensure that, at the very least, these state laws will get a fair hearing when they come before a panel of judges.

And the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a Louisiana abortion case that has important implications for the future, namely, whether or not abortionists have standing to challenge abortion restrictions. That case will also examine the requirement that abortionists should have hospital admitting privileges in a nearby hospital.

The movie "Unplanned" opened nationwide and exceeded expectations at the box office, despite the abortion-friendly entertainment media doing its best to ignore the story of a former Planned Parenthood director’s pro-life conversion. The film brought in more than $21 million at the box office worldwide.

Pro-life advocates can be proud of all these things, because we worked hard to make them a reality.

Both other pro-life progress fell from the sky, so to speak.

For instance, in July, Planned Parenthood ousted its brand new CEO, Dr. Leana Wen, because she wasn’t pro-abortion enough. So the nation’s number one abortion cartel was caught accidentally telling the truth about the very reason it exists: Abortion, no matter what.

The death in September of abortionist Dr. Ulrich Klopfer provided an unexpected moment of clarity about the true nature of abortion when the bodies of 2,411 aborted babies were found on his properties in September.

Bizarre behavior like this always seems to make headlines because even abortion advocates find it disturbing. They don’t like to be confronted by the humanity of the unborn or the way abortion affects those who perform it.

Sadly, though, they were more disturbed by the fact that these babies were found than by the fact that they were killed.

In 2019 we also had a glimpse of how abortion twists the psyches of the public officials who advocate it.

In May, Pennsylvania State Rep. Brian Sims proudly posted videos of himself harassing an older woman and shaming young girls outside a Planned Parenthood killing center. He even offered a bounty to those who could provide the names and addresses of the young women.

This was bizarre, aggressive behavior on the part of an adult man who is an elected representative — and he was proud of it! But his antics backfired as the mother of two of the young girls found her own pro-life activism supercharged and hundreds of pro-lifers turned up at the same Planned Parenthood to protest child killing and to stand up to Sims’ bullying tactics. The rally gained national attention and energized pro-life activists nationwide.

Another gift to the pro-life movement came early in 2019, when Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam accidentally told the truth about a bill in his state that would allow a child born alive after abortion to be kept “comfortable” while he or she died, rather than to be given life-saving intervention. And at the same time, New York enacted the most pro-abortion law in the world, awakening the consciences of people nationwide as to how disturbingly extreme abortion policy has become.

Those of us who have devoted our lives to ending abortion thank God for a fruitful 2019 and look forward to an even better 2020.

Fr. Frank Pavone is one of the most prominent pro-life leaders in the world. He became a Catholic priest in 1988 under Cardinal John O’Connor in New York. In 1993 he became National Director of Priests for Life. He is also the President of the National Pro-life Religious Council, and the National Pastoral Director of the Silent No More Campaign and of Rachel’s Vineyard, the world’s largest ministry of healing after abortion. He travels to about four states every week, preaching and teaching against abortion. He broadcasts regularly on television, radio, and internet. He was asked by Mother Teresa to speak in India on abortion, and was asked by then-candidate Donald Trump to serve on his Pro-life and Catholic advisory councils. He has served at the Vatican as an official of the Pontifical Council for the Family, which coordinates the pro-life activities of the Catholic Church. To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.