In response to the Obama administration’s announcement that it would be leaving an empty seat in the guest box at this month’s State of the Union Address “to honor the victims of gun violence,” pro-life Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, declared that as president he would give similar recognition to victims of abortion.

There were 13,348 deaths due to firearms in 2015, which comes to approximately 37 per day. By contrast, 1.1 million people were killed by abortion in 2010 (the most recent year with available data), or approximately 3,014 deaths per day. Further, the actual abortion numbers are likely higher due to several states, including Maryland and California, not reporting abortion data at all.

Planned Parenthood alone performed 323,999 abortions in 2015, which is 24 times the number of gun deaths emphasized by President Obama, who last week vetoed legislation to defund the abortion giant and in 2013 declared, “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”

In response to the Obama administration’s announcement that it would be leaving an empty seat in the guest box at this month’s State of the Union Address “to honor the victims of gun violence,” pro-life Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz, declared that as president he would give similar recognition to victims of abortion.

There were 13,348 deaths due to firearms in 2015, which comes to approximately 37 per day. By contrast, 1.1 million people were killed by abortion in 2010 (the most recent year with available data), or approximately 3,014 deaths per day. Further, the actual abortion numbers are likely higher due to several states, including Maryland and California, not reporting abortion data at all.

Planned Parenthood alone performed 323,999 abortions in 2015, which is 24 times the number of gun deaths emphasized by President Obama, who last week vetoed legislation to defund the abortion giant and in 2013 declared, “Thank you, Planned Parenthood. God bless you.”