Texas Teens Join Annual 'March for Life' Protest
Cox News Service
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
WASHINGTON — Carrying the Lone Star flag, 14-year-old Cagney Haag explained why he had endured a 24-hour bus ride from Frisco, Texas, and slept on a gym floor so he could shiver on the streets of the nation's capital on this raw winter Tuesday.
"Abortion is wrong," said the freshman from Centennial High School. "It is just not right to kill an innocent unborn person because of something you did."
 RICK MCKAY/Cox Washington Bureau Cousins Adam Brown, 14, left, and Ryan Brown, 16, right, both from Celeste, Texas, hold their banner while attending the annual 'March for Life' rally in Washington, D.C, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. The rally marked the 35th anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade abortion decision.  RICK MCKAY/Cox Washington Bureau Jacquelyn Smith, plays with daughter Cecilia, 7 and a half months old, while attending the annual 'March for Life' rally in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008, to mark the 35th anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade abortion decision. Smith and husband Andrew brought a Dallas-based Catholic group called Youth for Life to the rally.  RICK MCKAY/Cox Washington Bureau Tommy White, from Berwyn Heights, Md., takes part in the annual 'March for Life' rally in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. The rally marked the 35th anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade abortion decision.  RICK MCKAY/Cox Washington Bureau A group of students from New Hampshire take part in the annual 'March for Life' rally in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008. |
"I'm here for the women," said Laura Dodd, a 17-year-old senior at Wylie High School near Dallas. "Abortion hurts women. Women are supposed to be maternal. Mothers killing babies is like a dysfunction of women's nature."
Dozens of Texas teenagers were among the tens of thousands of anti-abortion activists who marched on the Supreme Court to protest on the 35th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing women the right to end an unwanted pregnancy.
"Abortion is horrible and we need to put an end to it. That's what we're here for," said Cate Hemphill, 15, who came from Dallas with a Catholic group called Youth for Life.
The 35 kids raised money for the flight and for several days in Washington by selling tamales at churches and other fundraising activities, said Andrew Smith, an adult leader of the group. "There is incredible growth in the movement — especially among young people," he said.
For much longer than the young lives of the Texas demonstrators, the annual March for Life has called attention to the emotional issue that split the nation when justices in the nation's highest court granted the right to an abortion in a 5-4 decision.
"Thirty-five years ago today the United States Supreme Court declared and decided that under the law an unborn child is not considered a person," President Bush said in a telephoned address to the crowd. "But we know many things about the unborn. ... The fingers and toes and beating hearts that we can see on an unborn child's ultrasound come with something that we cannot see — a soul."
Bush urged the crowd to take heart in the decline of abortions that has come even though the court decision has not been reversed.
In 2005, the rate was 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44, following the downward trend that started after the abortion rate peaked at 29.3 in 1981, according to a new Guttmacher Institute census of U.S. abortion providers.
The national abortion rate is now at its lowest level since 1974, the year after the Roe v. Wade decision. The number of abortions declined as well, to a total of 1.2 million in 2005, 25 percent below the all-time high of 1.6 million abortions in 1990.
In Texas, 557,400 of the nearly 5 million women of reproductive age became pregnant in 2005. About 69 percent of these pregnancies resulted in live births and 15 percent in induced abortions.
So about 85,760 women obtained abortions in Texas — a rate of 17.3 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age, which is below the national rate of 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44.
The Texas rate has declined 8 percent since 2000, when it was 18.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. Some of these women were from other states and some Texas residents had abortions in other states, so this rate may not reflect the exact abortion rate of state residents.
Both sides of the abortion issue noted a presidential election is approaching.
"This is a promising year for women," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, an abortion rights group that held a smaller counter-demonstration. "We will soon be seeing the last of George Bush and his right-wing religious zealots, but it is critical that we elect a new president and a Congress committed to full reproductive health care for women."
Many of the anti-abortion marchers carried signs saying "I Vote Pro-Life."
Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, a Republican candidate for president, told the crowd that he had delivered more than 4,000 babies during his medical career. Paul said he learned in medical school that in treating a pregnant woman, he had two patients.
"All life begins at conception," Paul declared.
Abortions in Texas represented 7.1 percent of all abortions in the United States in 2005, according to the Guttmacher report.
In 2005, there were 64 abortion providers in Texas. This represents a 2 percent decrease from 2000, when there were 65 abortion providers.
In 2005, 93 percent of Texas counties had no abortion provider — compared to 87 percent of counties nationwide. The report said 35 percent of Texas women lived in these counties — compared to about 33 percent of women nationwide who live counties without abortion providers.
In Texas, 11 metropolitan areas have no abortion provider: Odessa; Longview; Laredo; Tyler; Amarillo; Sherman-Denison; Victoria; Texarkana, TX-AR; Abilene; San Angelo; Wichita Falls, according to the Guttmacher Institute report.