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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 28, 1983
PAGE 10
Naturally, as a result of these and subsequent rulings, abortions-on-demand
zoomed upward. In 1980, a record 1.55 million legal abortions were per
formed in the United States, terminating.about one of every four pregnan
cies. The 1980 figure was more than double the 774,000 legal abortions per
formed on demand in 1973, the first year of legalized abortions in the
nation. Of course in some states and localities the figure is even higher.
For example, 31% (nearly one of every three) pregnancies now ends in abor
tion in Florida.
Since in the eyes of the courts the matter of abortion is no longer a moral
or religious matter, but a matter of legal definition and degree, it is com
paratively easy to make new rulings on it. Note this news dispatch from the
SAN DIEGO UNION as reprinted in the November 6, 1982 issue of HUMAN EVENTS:
Judges of the 4th District Court of Appeals had political philo
sophy on their minds when they ruled that University of Cali
fornia students may not withhold a portion of their student fees
because they object on moral or religious grounds to how a por
tion of the money is used.
The fees are like taxes levied by a government, the judges rea
soned, and a citizen cannot refuse to pay taxes for support of
the government because of an objection to something the govern
ment does. So the court has upheld the right of the University of
California to finance abortions for women students with the
registratio�ees all students must�y as part of the c�of�
education on � University of California cam � us. .. The practice
will continue unless the decision is overturne on further appeal
by students at UCSD and five other campuses who took the issue to
court.
Last year, the editor-in-chief of THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR, R. Emmett Tyr
rell, took note of this irony: some people are greatly fearful for the
future of humanity ("think of the children" they all seem to say) due to the
threat of nuclear warfare. At the same time the terrible toll in human life
caused by legalized abortion-on-demand is overlooked. Often the same class
of people (liberals, generally speaking) advocate a nuclear freeze and the
right to abortion at the same time. Mr. Tyrrell asked in the April 20, 1982
issue
of the LOS ANGELES HERALD EXAMINER, "Which Kills More Babies--Atom
Bombs or Abortions?"
The destruction of human life! Anxiety over it is the theme of
this season's great left-wing cause, to wit:
ending the arms
race here and now without addressing the policies of the
u.s.s.R....
Maybe,•••we in the West are not as fervid for human life as the
demonstrators would have it. After all, they have not been par
ticularly vocal in lamenting the destruction of human life in
Southeast Asia since the Communist reformers took charge, opened
their concentration camps and sent the boat people out to sea.
And back in the United States, where no foreign governments can
fetter our solicitude for human life, some rather gruesome prac
tices have become the norm,•..One and a half million abortions
are now practiced annually. So what? In February (1982) the