President's corner, July / August 2021

Next month we will be gathering in Lancaster and Columbus to celebrate 40 years of rescuing lives and impacting families for generations together as a community. What a journey it has been.

PDHC's very first center opened in 1981 on the 8th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and had 309 visits and 2,800 hotline calls that year. In 1981, there were more than 40,000 surgical abortions in the state of Ohio with about 55 abortion clinics providing this service.

Fast forward to 2020, PDHC's 4 resource centers had over 6,900 visits and more than 40,000 hotline calls, texts and chats. According to the latest statistics from the Ohio Department of Health, in 2019 there were about 20,000 abortions in the state of Ohio (Franklin county had the 2nd highest abortion rate in the state). In 2020, Ohio had 8 abortion clinics remaining.

While surgical abortions are decreasing, chemical abortions via the abortion pill are increasing at a rapid rate and in 2019, represented about 70% of the abortions in Franklin County. In 2018, an abortion pill clinic opened its doors less than 3 miles from our busiest resource center. Beginning in late 2019, PDHC joined affiliate Heartbeat International's Abortion Pill Rescue Network, and began providing abortion pill reversal services to help women who regret starting a chemical abortion and want a second chance to save the life of their baby. Since then, several women have received this service through PDHC and four healthy babies have been born into the PDHC family, with more babies expected to be born this year.

Most individuals I talk with in the community aren't aware of this increased trend from surgical to chemical abortions, and that abortion pill reversal is available, how it works, and that it is successful 64-68% of the time. Recently, Students for Life of America and Heartbeat International teamed up with author and producer, Charlotte Pence Bond, (daughter of former Vice President Mike Pence), to create an informational DocuSeries on Chemical Abortion. Hear from the experts by clicking on this link:

brightenunion.com/chemical/video-series/

Please join us at our upcoming Galas to learn more as we unite and celebrate the gift of life together as a community.

Blessings,
Kathy