From Life Site News.

Excerpt:

As the media debate the reason abortions declined over the last few years, pro-life voices say the record number of new laws restricting abortion played a role. The year 2014 is already shaping up to follow the trend of substantial pro-life legislation.

Arizona

Abortion facilities will no longer receive advance notice of state inspections, if the governor signs a proposed law. The state House of Representatives passed the measure, allowing unannounced health inspections of abortion facilities, by a vote of 34-22.

Florida

A woman tricked into ingesting an abortion-inducing drug that killed her child wants legislators to make sure that never happens to another woman. Remee Jo Lee testified that, unless lawmakers pass a new statute, Florida will have no state ordinance punishing offenders who harm women the way her boyfriend hurt her, physically and emotionally. “I’m still here but a big part of me is missing,” Lee told the House Judicial Committee. “I miss my baby every single day.” The committee passed the Unborn Victims of Violence Act 13-3 on Monday. It would allow prosecutors the discretion to try a criminal for a separate murder if he kills an unborn child, even if he did not know the woman was pregnant.

Oklahoma

The Oklahoma House passed a bill requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their office, by a vote of 73-9. Similar measures have closed nine abortion facilities in neighboring Texas, as well as other states where admitting privileges were allowed to be enacted. The Senate must now pass the bill.

West Virginia

Abortion restrictions inched closer to acceptance in the Mountaineer State, as the state Senate Health and Human Resources Committee approved a ban on abortions at 20 weeks. Delegate Joe Ellington, a pro-life OB/GYN and Republican, said the bill actually goes into effect 20 weeks from conception, not the way most medical specialists count weeks. Therefore, it should really be viewed as a ban on abortion after 22 weeks of pregnancy. Violators could be fined $4,000. The bill then passed the Judiciary Committee. It will now go to the full state Senate for a vote.

Missouri

Women in Missouri may have more time to consider whether abortion is the right decision for them. The state House passed a bill to increase the waiting period for an abortion from 24 hours to 72 hours by a 115-37 vote on Wednesday. Nine Democrats joined the chamber’s Republican majority. It must pass the chamber a second time. However, Senate Democrats launched a filibuster against the Senate version of the bill on Wednesday.

More good news from a different Life Site News article.

Excerpt:

The ever-decreasing number of abortion clinics continues its decline with the announcement of the closing of abortion clinics in Texas, Florida, and California.

Whole Women’s Health announced this week that its surgical abortion clinics in McAllen and Beaumont have permanently closed due to the new law passed last year that requires abortion facilities to meet minimum safety requirements, including hiring only abortionists that maintain local hospital privileges. The McAllen location had “temporarily” closed in January.

Operation Rescue had lodged complaints about the Whole Women’s Health clinics in McAllen, Beaumont, and Austin after discovering they were improperly dumping “identifiable” aborted baby remains a during an undercover investigation in 2011. This led the Austin and McAllen locations to be heavily fined.

In addition, the North Florida Women’s Health & Counseling Service in Tallahassee has announced in public notices that it will be closing permanently on March 31. That surgical abortion clinic has operated continuously since 1981.

Surgical abortion clinics are not the only ones closing. Planned Parenthood’s office in Sunnyvale, California, which offered only medication abortions (RU-486) shut down in January.

“We are on track to see another great year. Every time an abortion clinic closes, lives are saved because women have a greater opportunity to seek other means of coping with the challenges they face. This is great news for women and their babies,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue.

Also out of business for good is Lester Minto’s Reproductive Services in Harlington, Texas. Minto stopped abortions in November due to the new Texas law, but continued to see abortion patients who had taken abortion pills procured in Mexico or other locations. This week he announced onMSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show that he has closed his clinic permanently and is selling his building.

Minto’s clinic joins real estate market along with the former New Women All Women abortion building in Birmingham, Alabama, which was put up for sale this week.

So far in 2014, seven surgical abortion clinics in four states have announced closure with one abortion pill clinic closing. Those states are California, Florida, Texas, and Iowa.

It seems like such a strange thing to me that some people get up and go to work, and their job is killing unborn children for money. But I guess that’s why we Republicans have to pass these laws. It’s a good signal to people that they need to be more careful about the consequences of their own behaviors. Basically, Republicans are saying to people that your freedom to do as you please ends when you brush up against someone else’s freedom, no matter how small that other person might be. At least in some states, there are people looking out for the protection of those little unborn people. Sometimes, it seems to me as if the whole world is going away from morality and personal responsibility, but then I look at this legislation and I think “at least somebody is doing something right”.

By the way, Life Site News also had a good article about how the Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is putting a stronger emphasis on pro-life voters. I think he’s probably making the case to pro-lifers that this issue matters to Republicans and that they are advancing legislation to do something to protect unborn children from adult who want to skip out on their responsibilities.