Faithful readers heard it here first.

The pro-life movement is winning — whether in legislatures or at the more intimate person-to-person level, one changed mind, one saved life at a time — even here in Connecticut.

Yesterday, the Associated Press reported: “Nearly everywhere, in red states and blue, abortions are down since 2010. …Nationwide, the AP survey showed a decrease in abortions of about 12 percent since 2010.” Read the full analysis here. Naturally, this news left Planned Parenthood and other abortion apologists scrambling to rationalize their threatened existence by claiming credit, but even our opponents have difficulty denying the effects of the pro-life movement. A Guttmacher Institute spokesperson “said a total of 267 abortion restrictions have been enacted in 31 states since 2011”; a Louisiana abortion lawyer, explaining an influx of abortion tourism to her state, adds tartly that the rise in her state, an exception to the trend, “is absolutely not because access has increased. There were fewer clinics and doctors in 2014 than 2010.” None of them cited, and the article barely touches on the decrease in sexual activity among Millennials compared to the previous generation. At least when pro-life laws are passed, the pro-abortion contingent have the big, bad legislatures to paint as villain, but simply having fewer customers interested in what they’re selling is perhaps a more enigmatic (to them) and definitely a more inconvenient kink in the narrative.

The New England-centric redux of the AP report, featuring dueling quotes from Planned Parenthood’s Judy Tabar and Barth Bracy of Rhode Island Right to Life, appeared in the Hartford Courant yesterday.

If you followed FIC Blog’s move to our new, improved website, you already knew that abortions were on the decrease in Connecticut. The Catholic Conference released its annual report at the end of 2014 and it was among the first stories we wrote in 2015. In essence, we scooped the Courant — several months in advance.

Bracy puts the decrease down to a change in the culture, and specifically that more people than ever have access to ultrasound technology. We agree with him, but believe there’s even more. Judy Tabar’s maneuver, on the other hand, is to fixate on the magic year 2010 and attempt to tie the decline in abortion rates to Obamacare:

She said the drop in abortions in Connecticut, Rhode Island and elsewhere is due in large part to provisions in the federal Affordable Care Act which enable women to access contraception without a co-payment.

Planned Parenthood is having a hyperventilation fit in advance of a decision in King v. Burwell, which threatens to undo at least some of the effect of the HHS Mandate with it, so this ploy seems rather obvious. Unfortunately for Tabar, the Catholic Conference report shows that the trend started to reverse in 2008 from a ten-year peak in 2007 — before Barack Obama even took office.

We can’t speak to the rest of New England without a little more research, but as for Connecticut, what happened in late 2007 or 2008? Hartford and Norwich began holding 40 Days for Life vigils, that’s what.

What else has happened circa 2007-08 and since? Hopeline Pregnancy Resource Center began offering ultrasounds in Danbury (2010 in Bridgeport). St. Gerard’s Center in Hartford also acquired an ultrasound in 2011.

Since 2009, the Catholic Conference reported, four Connecticut abortion clinics have shuttered their doors — including three that did both medical and surgical abortions.

Since then, at least two new pro-life pregnancy centers have also opened, one in the heart of the Yale campus.

Yes! By the grace of God, truth, love, and life are prevailing even in hostile territory. True, there is still much to do. Our neighbors in Rhode Island have a parental notification law and we do not. In 2013, the last year in the Catholic Conference’s report, over 400 abortions were performed on minors in Connecticut and statistics from a 10-year period suggest that the vast majority of these cases come from out of state. Parental notification laws are proven to reduce abortion. However, these laws are not just about stopping abortions, but about protecting girls from abuse and predation and putting loving parents back into their children’s lives when it comes to major health decisions.  Still, an overall 27% decline in the abortion rate, including a 63% decline in the teen abortion rate, in seven years is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

To Planned Parenthood, we say:

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To our pro-life friends we say: keep your chin up, work hard, trust the Lord, and stay tuned to this blog for more reportage of what the mainstream press won’t tell you.