Abortion was the leading cause of death globally in 2021, with nearly 43 million unborn babies killed in the womb, according to data provided by Worldometer.
As of noon on December 31, 2021, there were 42.6 million abortions performed in the course of the year, Worldometer revealed, while 8.2 million people died from cancer, 5 million from smoking, 1.7 million of HIV/AIDS, 1.3 million from traffic fatalities, and 1 million from suicide.
Totaling all the deaths in the world from causes other than abortion reveals a figure of 58.7 million, meaning that abortions accounted for just over 42 percent of all human deaths in 2021.
By comparison, worldwide deaths from coronavirus in 2021 totaled around 3.5 million, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Worldometer — voted one of the best free reference websites by the American Library Association (ALA) — keeps a running tally through the year of major world statistics, including population, births, deaths, automobiles produced, books published, and CO2 emissions.
It also registers the total number of abortions performed worldwide, based on the latest statistics on abortions published by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Globally, there were more deaths from abortion in 2021 than all deaths from cancer, malaria, HIV/AIDS, smoking, alcohol, and traffic accidents combined, according to Worldometer statistics.
The startling number of deaths from abortion, in fact, has led certain observers to call abortion “the social justice cause of our time,” since the sheer magnitude of the problem completely overshadows other human rights issues.
On December 28, Christians around the world celebrated the Feast of the Holy Innocents, commemorating the slaughter of all male children in Israel under the age of two by order of King Herod in an effort to kill the newborn Christ child. Pope Francis has compared Herod’s massacre of the Innocents to the modern practice of killing babies through abortion.
The 49th annual March for Life in the United States will take place in Washington, D.C., on January 21, 2022, with the theme “Equality Begins in the Womb.”
“The pro-life movement recognizes the immense responsibility this nation bears to restore equal rights to its most defenseless citizens in the womb,” March for Life president Jeanne Mancini said at a press conference in October.
The stated purpose of the march is to end abortion by “uniting, educating, and mobilizing pro-life people in the public square.”
The annual march commemorates the infamous January 22, 1973, Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade which, together with the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey, nullifed 50 state laws and made abortion legal and available on demand throughout the United States.
