Numbers

We've covered quite a few issues dealing with moral, spiritual, emotion, and physical aspects of abortion. I find however, that numbers always seem to fascinate me as much or more than the former, partly because I have been brought up with the understanding that from a Christian perspective, there is something fundamentally flawed with abortion. But what if we were to fight on a different front? What if somebody disregarded your arguments as Christian bigotry, no matter how convincing? I'm not saying that God's Word and Holy Spirit are not powerful enough to change a man's perspective and/or life, but there must be an alternative way to argue that can convince even the staunchest pro-choice apologist. And there is.

Math has never been my favorite subject. Like many things in life, I have to actually work to understand it. But as a defender of human rights, including those of the unborn, math is your friend. I'm hoping in these next two or three articles to cover more economical, statistical, and political approaches to the pro-life cause. These hopefully will give some readers a better understanding of how to fight the enemy on his own turf. My primary goal is to explain what abortion has done to the nation as a whole and why our government is in favor of continually supporting the industry. Take emotion and God completely out of the picture and you're left with a calculator.

Let's begin in appendix 1 of E. Calvin Beisner's 1990 Prospects For Growth. There are a few statistics provided by history professor Allan C. Carlson, who in 1988 calculated that an average person costs from birth to eighteen, and then from 65 until death around $192,600 (remember that key word "average"). This figure stands regardless whether one person was employed and another wasn't.

"But the same average person will occasion the production directly and indirectly, of goods and services with average worth, if a male, of $55,277 per year; if a female, of $26,680 per year every year from age eighteen to age sixty-five."

This according to Beisner meant the average male produced $2,598,019 worth of goods and services during his lifetime, and a female, $1,253,960 in her lifetime. Now subtract the cost of each individual from what he/she produces and as a net worth to society the average male produces $2,405,419 in goods and the female, $1,061,360. Do you kind of get the drift? That's a lot of money from ONE male and ONE female in the early 1990's. Since then the dollar's value has plummeted drastically due to inflation, and has traded quality for quantity.

By 2005 the abortion industry was claiming the lives of some 1.2 million babies annually. This according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute statistics was a decrease from 1990's 1.5-1.6 million abortions. Yet researcher Dennis M. Howard still claimed that abortions have cost the U.S. GDP more than $35 trillion! To me that seems a bit of an exaggeration. Averages are never fully accurate. Nevertheless, I would not doubt it is in the trillions. Beisner calculated in 1990 that by 2007 the combined annual loss to society would reach $542,054,670,000 and continue to grow. Remember that these would be in constant 1987 dollars. And it's not just the general public that loses. Taxes are another issue.The federal revenue by Beisner's calculations would lose $108,410,930,000 annually by 2007. By 2017 (just a few years away) those losses would exceed $1 trillion annually to society and about $200 billion to federal revenue.

Again and for the last time I want to emphasize that these are averages. There are still factors that may or may not have been brought into the equation such as natural disasters, diseases which may wipe out a part of the population, birth rates of different races, etc. It can never be fully accurate. One statistic provided below claims that 50.5 million abortions have cost the nation $35-$70 trillion. Playing around with that many numbers sounds suspicious. However, every statistic I found exceeds $3 trillion. Wanna know what 1 trillion looks like? I encourage you to go to this site and find out: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=12754 . Notice that these are 100 dollar bills, not 1 dollar bills.

Here are other interesting facts I found off the wonderful web. "1 trillion dollars can fund the military of every NATO country combined." "1 trillion dollars can pay for every U.S. military intervention and war since 9/11." And of course there are a lot more.

Now with these diagrams in your mind, try to picture $3 trillion. And if you're more confident than I am in Dennis M. Howard, try to imagine $35 trillion! The point is, these numbers should be sobering. And the fact that generations produce more generations means that economic losses from 50 million abortions are incalculable.

http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/abortionstats.html -
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/archive/ldn/2008/oct/08102109
http://www.movementforabetteramerica.org/
http://www.movementforabetteramerica.org/economicimpact.html
http://www.physiciansforlife.org/content/view/590/48/
http://www.aipnews.com/talk/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1019&posts=4
http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/visualizing-one-trillion-dollars/

Rebelution Tour 2011

The idea for this blog was inspired by authors Alex and Brett Harris, who wrote a book called Do Hard Things, to challenge teens (and others) to rebel against low expectations placed on them by modern society. They called this idea the Rebelution.

Every year, Alex and Brett tour the U.S. in a series of conferences. This year, unfortunately, will be their last tour. They will be coming to Orlando, Florida; Williamsport, Pennsylvania; San Diego, California; Portland, Oregon; Kansas City, Kansas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This is a great event, full of worship, of learning how to "do hard things," and of meeting great people. I encourage each of you to come to one of these, if you can make it. The prices aren't too heavy, and you can find dates and price info here: http://www.therebelution.com/conference/

Most of us that teamed up for this blog will be going to the Portland conference on July 30th. If any are interested, we could meet them there and chat! Let us know via comments below.

Here is a promo video for the conference, to show you more about its purpose:

Summer Plan

We apologize that we have not posted anything in a month. Finals are over now so we have no excuse. Summer plan is...write, write, write!