Number Of US Abortion Clinics Falls To Lowest In 20 Years

The U.S. currently has fewer abortion clinics in operation than at any point in more than 20 years, a study by the anti-abortion Operation Rescue indicates. The group’s research, released on its website Monday, shows the overall number of abortion clinics in the U.S. fell by 73 this year to 793, only 511 of which are surgical abortion facilities.

Sixty surgical abortion facilities were shuttered this year, of which 47 will remain permanently closed, while only 15 clinics either added surgical abortions or opened for the first time. The figures contribute to a 23 percent drop in the number of surgical abortion clinics operating across America in the past five years, the group reported. “A new survey conducted by Operation Rescue of all abortion facilities in the United States has confirmed that the abortion clinic closure trend continued strongly in 2014,” the study states.

The downward trend in the number of U.S. abortion clinics has been spurred largely by anti-abortion legislation enacted in mostly Republican-controlled states like Texas, which saw 14 abortion facilities closed in 2014 in the wake of the passage of anti-abortion law HB2 in 2013. But 2014 saw fewer clinics close than in 2013 when 93 abortion clinics were shuttered across the U.S.

More than 200 state anti-abortion laws have passed since 2010 when Republicans won a wave of elections in statehouses across the country and took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Hill reported. “We are continuing to witness the implosion of the abortion cartel in America,” Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, said in a statement. “The only things that are preventing total collapse are court injunctions that are blocking several state abortion safety laws from being enforced. Once those laws clear the courts, we expect to see even more dangerous abortion facilities close. This is great news for women and babies because when abortion clinics close, lives are saved.”