By Donna Westfall – September 19, 2025 Let's take a trip down memory lane to 1973. Roe v Wade was before the courts. The public was told that NO TAXPAYERS MONIES would pay for abortions. Why? I believe it was because most of America believed that abortion is tantamount to murder especially when it's involving a baby at full term. But back in 1973, few ever expected that abortions would ultimately take place up to and including birth. And, most abortions are due to unintended pregnancy, not rape, not incest nor to protect the health of the mother. But here we are over 50 years later with Medicaid (California's MediCal) that utilized taxpayers money to pay for abortions. Millions and millions of taxpayers dollars spent. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? I'm not talking about rape, incest or to protect the health of the mother which we were told back in 1973 was about 1% of all abortions. Let's look at those percentages nowadays; less than 5% of abortions are due to rape, incest, or to protect the health of the mother, according to research from both the Guttmacher Institute and the Lozier Institute 2004: Rape: approximately 1% of abortions are due to rape, though the Lozier Institute estimates the figure is lower, at 0.4%. Incest: Both the Guttmacher and Lozier Institutes found that less than 0.5% of abortions are the result of incest. Physical health: The Lozier Institute reported that 2.2% of abortions were due to "other physical health concerns," while 0.3% were for reasons related to a risk to the woman's life or "major bodily function". Sure I think that decriminalizing abortion was the right step to take to stop the back alley butchering. I learned that after having eight children, my grandmother submitted to a back alley abortion. But let's be honest, since 1973, Medicaid (which is a Federal-State joint program) paid for low income women to have abortions. About 40% of all abortions are performed by Planned Parenthood. Some figures are meant to be staggering. Let's turn our attention for the moment to this. What happens to a state or country when death rates are higher than birth rates? What do you think happens? There's a shrinking workforce and those coming up through the ranks are supporting an ever increasing aging population. Sorta like what's happening with our Social Security. Back to abortion numbers. Since 1973 to current: 65,464,760 have been performed and keep in mind that this number is not 100% accurate because between abortion pills and voluntary reporting of abortions there are no accurate figures. Enter President Trump and his Big Beautiful Bill Act signed July 4th this year. But it didn't start this year. Back in 2016 Trump made a promise to defund Planned Parenthood. $670 million a year was poured into their coffers with taxpayer's money. A recent appellate court decision allowed Trump to go forward. The spigot is to be turned off. Trump is backing up his promises about the most divisive issues facing our country. First with illegal immigration and we've witnessed the huge success he's had with that. Now the abortion issue. Then there's gun control and climate change. I'm sure our forefather's never envisioned a problem with climate change, but they certainly did about guns and the 2nd Amendment. What will Planned Parenthood do? Probably not car washes and bake sales. Most likely they'll hit up non-profits and wealthy individuals to make up the gap. They fear that they'll have to close 200 clinics. As the mother of a teenaged daughter that got an abortion without letting us know, I sincerely hope that the tide is turning. My daughter regrets that decision. She has four beautiful children and is now a beaming grandmother. My personal struggle with abortion came after two years of marriage to my first husband and realizing he was not the man I thought he was. For the first trimester, I was separated from him. Ultimately I realized my belief system was that life is sacred and I could not submit to an abortion despite family pressure. I never regretted giving birth to my son. He's turned into a wonderful father and husband even though we disagree on some major issues like abortion and Trump.