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The continues to be good news on the pro-life front. Of course, it's not that the pro-life movement is without challenges.

Challenges after Roe v Wade seem to be as big as they were before Roe v Wade.

Welcome back to Issues, etc. Joining us to talk about declining abortion rates in North Carolina and Ohio.

Dr. Michael Neu, he's visiting assistant professor of social research and political science at the Catholic University of America.

Senior associate scholar at the Charlotte Loser Institute, Paige Comstock, Cunningham Fellow, with Americans United for Life and a columnist for National Review Online.

Dr. Neu, welcome back.

Thanks for having me. Much appreciated.

Overall, what have been the effects of gestational limit laws in the U.S.?

We can be very confident that gestational limit laws are lowering abortion rates and saving lives.

The best data that we have comes from Texas. They were enforcing a Harpyd Act as of September 1st, 2021.

That was even before dogs. We saw right after the Harpyd Act took effect, abortion numbers in Texas fell by about half.

But what was really interesting is birth data. Then about seven months after the Harpyd Act took effect, we saw large numbers of children being born in Texas.

I'd say record numbers. My research that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that over a thousand more children were being born in Texas every month, as was on the Harpyd Act.

So very good evidence that gestational limit laws stop abortions and save lives.

What did the Gutmucker Institute recently report regarding the abortion numbers in North Carolina?

They found that between June and July of 2023, abortions fell by 31%.

So that's a good finding because as of July 1st, North Carolina started enforcing a new pro-life law.

This pro-life law protected pre-born children after 12 weeks' gestation and also had a 72 hour waiting period.

So again, it was a good solid pro-life law and it is very clear that it did reduce the number of abortions performed in North Carolina.

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