Rep. Cawthorn Proposes Bill Requiring CDC to Include Abortions in US Death Rates

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., introduced House legislation Thursday that would require the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to include abortions into the annual count of child deaths.

The bill, formally known as the Seeking Official Uncounted Lives Statistics Act, or SOULS Act, would obligate federal officials to collect hard numbers involving abortion-related deaths in America.

"An unborn child is a human life, no matter what stage of pregnancy the mother is in. Simply ignoring this massacre of Americans is not only wrong, it's discriminatory. Life begins at conception and the recognition of that life ought to begin at conception, as well," said Cawthorn in a statement. 

Cawthorn added: "The current system of ignoring infanticide can no longer be tolerated. I am proud to introduce this common-sense piece of legislation which will reveal the devastating amount of lives lost to abortion in our nation."

The core language of Cawthorn's two-page proposal reads as follows: "In collecting and making available information on death numbers and rates in the United States, the [CDC] shall, to the extent possible, include in such numbers and rates any abortion of a human embryo or fetus."

At present, the CDC isn't lawfully required to characterize abortions as a "cause of death."

However, from Cawthorn's perspective, abortion would make the CDC's top-five listing of "preventable" causes of death if the new legislation garners passage in the House and Senate chambers.  

According to Decision Magazine, there were 42.6 million abortions worldwide in 2021. 

By comparison, according to the publication, 13 million people died from communicable diseases last year; 8.2 million from cancer; 5 million from smoking; 2.5 million from alcohol, and 1.7 million from HIV/AIDS.

Also, citing the CDC.gov website:

• In 2019, 629,898 legal induced abortions were reported from 49 reporting areas. 
• The abortion rate was 11.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years, and the abortion ratio was 195 abortions per 1,000 live births.
• In 2019, "women in their twenties accounted for the majority of abortions (56.9%). The majority of abortions in 2019 took place early in gestation: 92.7% of abortions were performed at ≤13 weeks' gestation; a smaller number of abortions (6.2%) were performed at 14–20 weeks' gestation, and even fewer (<1.0%) were performed at ≥21 weeks' gestation."

Congressman Cawthorn will be running for reelection this year, beginning with next Tuesday's GOP primary.

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