• ND Teens For Life
• Who We Are
• What We Do
• Our Creed
• Our Mission
• How Does This Affect You
• How You Can Get Involved
• Local Chapters
• North Dakota Right to Life

No matter how old we are or what walk of life we come from, abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide are no strangers among us. In the U.S., more than a million teen girls become pregnant every year. About 30,000 of them are under the age of 15. A study in 1993 showed that of those 1 million pregnancies, about 406,000 of them will end in abortion each year. North Dakota averages over 1,000 teen pregnancies a year. Unfortunately, North Dakota also averages over 1,200 abortions per year. North Dakota's abortion numbers rose to an all time high in 1982 at 3,076 abortions. Since that time, North Dakota has seen a steady decline in the number of abortions performed each year with the rate staying at 1,200 to 1,300 abortions per year since 1996.

When addressing the issue of abortion, remember there are two victims: #1 - the child, and #2 - the mother who chose abortion. "Studies have indicated that mothers who choose abortion are in turn three times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. When compared to mothers who have given birth, mothers who choose abortion are six times more likely to commit suicide." (Reading: "Finnish Study Links Abortion to Suicide Risk," Pro-life E-news, Canada, 12/5/96) With this in mind, we can see that abortion leads us into a whole other realm of social problems.

Even though one can't find exact statistics concerning the numbers of euthanasia and assisted suicide acts, one fact we do know is that they do happen. Certain bio-ethics experts strongly believe that by legalizing euthanasia, we are endorsing youth suicide because of the "wholly negative message we are sending to our young people." ("Summary for Congressional Subcommittee on the Constitution: Suicide, Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: Lessons from the Dutch Experience." Herbert Hendin, M.D. 4/29/1996)

In the last 20 years the Netherlands have gone from "assisted suicide to euthanasia for the terminally ill to euthanasia for the chronically ill, from euthanasia for physical illness to euthanasia for psychological distress and from voluntary euthanasia to nonvoluntary and involuntary euthanasia." (Ibid.) How long before our country or our state can make this statement?