In 2025, abortion surpassed every other cause of death on earth. More than 73 million human beings were killed worldwide through abortion — more than cancer, disease, war, suicide, or accidents combined. The scale is staggering. The response, by contrast, has been increasingly hostile toward anyone who tries to make it visible.

On December 19, Anastasia Rogers, a pro-life activist, was arrested on a public sidewalk outside a Planned Parenthood facility in San Francisco. An organizer with pro-life group Survivors San Francisco, she was distributing pregnancy resource pamphlets when police handcuffed her and took her into custody. The arrest followed a complaint from a clinic security guard who cited an Instagram post Rogers had made about her sidewalk outreach, alleging “threatening language.”

Rogers was booked, held pending arraignment, and released later that evening.

“Yesterday, I was arrested for my pro-life work at Planned Parenthood,” Rogers said in a statement. “Despite never breaking any laws during my time at the San Francisco Planned Parenthood, they’re using laws, as expected, to persecute people like me using false claims of ‘intimidation.’”

She added, “There are babies who die every day because of Planned Parenthood, and we will not be intimidated into backing down.”

Supporters say the arrest reflects growing misuse of expanded state and federal clinic “buffer” laws, including California’s strengthened enforcement of the FACE Act. Survivors San Francisco described the incident as “legislative abuse,” noting that even pro-choice lawmakers and civil liberties groups had previously warned the law was overly broad.

The Leading Cause of Death

While activists are removed from sidewalks, abortion continues at an industrial scale.

According to Worldometers, abortion accounted for nearly 52%, or 73 million, of all global deaths in 2025. By comparison, an estimated 10 million people died from cancer, 6.2 million from smoking, 17 million from all diseases, and 2 million from HIV/AIDS.

In the United States alone, nearly one million abortions occur every year. Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, an estimated 66 million unborn children have been killed.

The numbers are often described as “incomprehensible.” But each statistic represents an individual human life — a developing body with unique DNA, a beating heart, and, in most cases, detectable movement at the time of death.

That reality rarely appears in official language. Abortion is framed as a “procedure.” The child disappears into euphemism.

Pressure Without Compromise

Though politics has played a role in abortion policy for decades, recent debates have underscored a growing tension even among allies.

Earlier this month, Republican lawmakers and major pro-life organizations pushed back sharply after President Donald Trump suggested House Republicans might need to be “a little flexible” regarding the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal taxpayer funding for most abortions.

“I’m not flexible on the value of every child’s life,” Sen. James Lankford said in response. Pro-life leaders echoed that sentiment, warning that removing Hyde protections would represent a fundamental break with decades of policy.

Still, the debate itself highlights a broader truth: while funding rules are argued over intensely, abortion itself remains legal, accessible, and largely insulated from scrutiny.

What Gets Policed

In today’s moral landscape, right and wrong get flipped. Handing out pamphlets results in arrest. Social media posts are interpreted as threats. Silent presence is deemed intimidation. As one pro-life advocate put it, “The system reacts aggressively to speech — but treats death as routine.”

Abortion survives because it’s hidden and shielded from public scrutiny. Now is the time to use our freedom to make people aware of what abortion really is. Simply handing out a tract like Who Murdered Clarice? or Baby Talk can be all it takes to save the life of an unborn child — and their mother.