ABORTION:
C.D.C. YEARLY DATA
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An agency of the federal government, the Division of Reproductive
Health of the National
Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has collected legal abortion data
since 1969. They receive information from 52 reporting areas -- the 50 states,
the District of Columbia, & New York City. They issue an
annual Abortion Surveillance report. They do not
report on illegal abortions, for obvious reasons. Such abortions are
probably increasing significantly in numbers in recent years because many states have
passed parental consent and notification laws.
The CDC defines a legal induced abortion as "a procedure, performed by
a licensed physician or someone acting under the supervision of a licensed
physician, that was intended to terminate a suspected or known intrauterine
pregnancy and to produce a nonviable fetus at any gestational age."
No up-to-date abortion information is available. The CDC typically issues
their report in the middle of each year, to cover data three or four years previously.
For example, they issued a report for 1996 in 1999-JUL-30.
Historical CDC data from 1970 to 1995:
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Numbers of abortions: This is the total number of legal abortions
reported in the U.S.:
 |
1970 to 1980: The number of abortions increased every year. |
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1981 to 1982: The number stabilized, increasing by only about
0.2% a year. |
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1983 to 1990: Significant growth resumed, with increases of
up to 5% per year |
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1990 to 1995: The number decreased every year. |
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Abortion ratio: This is the number of legal abortions per 1,000
live births.
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1970 to 1984: The ratio increased, reaching a peak of 364 in
1984 |
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1985 to 1995: The ratio decreased steadily to 311 in 1995 |
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Abortion rate: This is the number of legal abortions per 1,000
women aged 15 to 44 years:
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1970 to 1980: The rate increased from 5 to 25. |
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1981 to 1992: The rate remained stable at 23 to 24. |
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1993 to 1995: The rate steadily declined to 20. |
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Death rate as a result of abortion: "...deaths [from
complications] related to legal induced abortions occurred rarely."
There were fewer than one death due to complications per 100,000 legal
abortions. From 1993 to 1997, the case-fatality rate was 0.6 deaths per
100,000 abortions. This is much lower
than the rate of maternal deaths for completed pregnancies. Having a
legal abortion is safer, on average, than completing the pregnancy.
1 Abortions that are performed early in pregnancy lead to
far fewer complications than abortions done later. |
Recent CDC data from 1995 to 1999:
| Item |
1995 |
1996 |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
| Total abortions 1 |
1,211 |
1,222 |
900 |
884 6 |
862 6 |
857 |
| Decrease in total abortions over previous year |
4.5% |
-0.9% 5 |
3.3% |
2% 6 |
2.5% 6 |
0.5% |
| % of abortions performed on women under 20 years of age |
20.1 |
20.3% |
20.1% |
19.8% |
19.2% |
18.8% |
| % of abortions on women 20 to 24 years |
32.5% |
31.8% |
31.7% |
31.8 |
32.2 |
33% |
| Number of deaths 2 |
? |
10 |
|
10 |
4 |
- |
| % unmarried women |
80.3% |
80.4% |
81.0% |
81.1% |
80.8 |
81% |
| Average abortion ratio 3 |
311 |
314 |
274 |
264 |
256 |
246 |
| Abortion rate 4 |
20 |
20 |
17 |
17 |
17 |
16 |
| % of abortions under 9 weeks gestation |
54.0 |
54.6% |
55.4% |
55.7% |
57.6% |
58% |
| % of abortions under 13 weeks gestation |
88% |
87% |
88.1 |
88.1% |
88.0% |
88% |
| % of abortions over 20 weeks gestation |
1.4% |
1.5% |
1.4% |
1.4% |
1.5% |
1.4 |
| Date report issued |
? |
1999-JUL |
2000-DEC |
2002-JUN |
2002-NOV |
2003? |
Notes for the above table:
- In thousands.
- This row gives the number of deaths due to complications from legal
induced abortions.
- Abortion ratio is the number of legal induced abortions per 1,000 live
births.
- Abortion rate is the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44
years.
-
The total number of legal abortions in the U.S. increased by 0.89% from 1995
to 1996. However, this number is deceptive, since the national population
increased by about 0.92% from mid-1995 to mid-1996. 6Thus, the number of abortions per-capita may have actually decreased slightly.
- These values were heavily influenced by missing data from Alaska, California,
New Hampshire and Oklahoma.
- These values were heavily influenced by missing data from Alaska, California,
and New Hampshire.
See references 1,2,3,4,7
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Additional information, primarily from the CDC:
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The Center for Disease Control and Prevention figures for 1996,
released in 1999-JUL, showed that the highest abortion rate is in
California (39 per year per 1000 women ages 15 to 44). California was
followed by New York (37), Florida (27), Delaware (26) Rhode Island
(24). The lowest was Wyoming with 2. These numbers are probably
greatly influenced by state laws. Tough state regulations will cause significant
numbers of women to travel to a nearby state for abortions. This will
reduce the rate of abortions in their state of origin and increase the
rate in nearby states. |
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Nationally, 92% of abortions were obtained within the woman's state of
residence, for those women whose state of residence was known.
2 |
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In some states, parental notification laws, parental consent laws,
and the lack of abortion facilities result in a major reduction of the
abortions performed in those states. In other states the reverse may be
true: a lack of inhibiting laws and easily accessible abortion clinics
may result in a major increase in the state's number of abortions.
However, these data may be misleading. Some women, unable to easily
obtain an abortion in their home state simply travel to a nearby state
for the procedure. The percentage of legal abortions obtained by
out-of-state residents in 1999 varied from 1% in Arizona, to 48.6% in
Kansas and 54.9% in the District of Columbia. In the year 2000,
abortions obtained by out of state residents averaged 9% of the total.
This ranged from 0.4% in Hawaii to 45% in the District of Columbia. |
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Worldwide, about 46 million women have abortions. This represents 22% of the 210 million
pregnancies that occur yearly. 5 |
Sponsored links:
You can safely buy books on abortion from Amazon.com's online bookstore:
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"Abortion surveillance - U.S., 1998," National Center for Chronic
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC, at:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/
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"Abortion Surveillance -- United States, 1996," CDC, 1999-JUL-30,
at:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/
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"Fact Sheet: Abortion Surveillance," CDC, 2002-JUN-7, at:
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/
-
"Abortion Surveillance -- United States, 1999," CDC,
2002-NOV-29,
at:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/
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Alan Guttmacher Institute data, released 1999-JAN.
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"Historical National Population Estimates" at:
http://www.census.gov/population/
-
"Abortion Surveillance -- United States, 2000," CDC,
2003-NOV-28,
at:
Copyright © 1995 to 2004 incl. by Ontario Consultants on
Religious Tolerance
Last updated: 2004-JAN-16
Author: B.A. Robinson
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