The Society of Family Planning, not exactly a pro-life organization, released a study earlier this week indicating that there were 32,260 fewer abortions than expected between July and December after the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision. That means there are more than 30,000 living, breathing babies alive today who, but for Dobbs and anti-abortion laws passed at the state level, would not have been born.

That those babies have been born demonstrates two things. First, it proves that banning or restricting abortion access actually reduces abortion. That seems intuitive, but pro-choice activists have insisted for decades that abortion bans don't work. They obviously do.

Second, it gives the lie to the trope that, unless the United States blows out its social programs and addresses the "root causes" of abortion, criminalization won't work. It might be a good idea to expand Medicaid, SNAP, and other welfare programs. Perhaps doing so will reduce the number of abortions; perhaps not. While we have that debate, pro-lifers should do one thing we know for certain will reduce abortions: ban them.