Abortion

Abortion data from reports of
the Alan Guttmacher Institute

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Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) abortion data:

The AGI is a non-profit group which was founded in 1968 by Alan F. Guttmacher (1898-1974). At the time, he was president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, an obstetrician-gynecologist, an author and a leader in reproductive rights. It specializes in "reproductive health research, policy analysis and public education....The Institute's mission is to protect the reproductive choices of all women and men in the United States and throughout the world. It is to support their ability to obtain the information and services needed to achieve their full human rights, safeguard their health and exercise their individual responsibilities in regard to sexual behavior and relationships, reproduction and family formation." ₁ Although the AGI is a pro-choice group, its data is widely accepted as accurate and is used by both pro-choice and pro-life groups.

The AGI supplies information that is more current than the data from the the Division of Reproductive Health of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. They issued their report for the year 2002 in 2005-MAY.

Data from the Institute's 2005-MAY report:

Their report issued on 2005-MAY-19 was based on 2001 & 2002 data. They found that the abortion rates in the U.S. continued to drop, although the rate of decrease has slowed since the early 1990s:

	The rate of abortion declined among women aged 15 to 44 from 21.3 in 2000 to 21.1 in 2001 and 20.9 in 2002 per 1000 women.
	The total numbers of abortions dropped from 1,313,999 in 2000 to 1,303,000 in 2001 and to 1,293,000 in 2002. These are decreases of 0.8% a year.

This compares with a rise in the number of abortions in the UK from 181,600 in 2003 to a record high of 185,400 in 2004 -- a 2% increase. Abortions for girls under 14 years of age increased by 6%. ₆

Pregnancy outcomes by state for 2001:

"Each year, six million of the 60 million American women of childbearing age (15-44) become pregnant. 63% of these pregnancies result in live births and 22% in abortions; the remainder end in miscarriage." These data refer only to known pregnancies. There are many early pregnancies that are terminated by miscarriages before the woman realizes that she had become pregnant.

Pregnancy outcomes by state and are listed below. ₂ The percent of pregnancies that are terminated by abortion are influenced by many factors, including:

	The culture of the area
	Its religious makeup (Conservative Protestants tend to have fewer abortions; religious liberals, secularists, etc. tend to have more; Roman Catholics tend to have slightly higher rate of abortions than the national average.
	The availability of emergency contraception (a.k.a. Morning-after pill)
	The public awareness of the existence of emergency contraception
	The availability of abortion services, compared with adjacent states.
	Restrictions on abortion access (waiting times, parental notification, parental permission). When a state introduces restriction on access, their abortion rate tends to drop. However, the abortion rates in adjacent states tend to rise as women leave the state to have an abortion.
	The area's economy.
	Availability of family planning services.
	The existence and content of sex-education classes in schools.
	The percentage of students who attend public schools.

States with exceptional rates (low and high) of abortions are highlighted.

Overview of abortion in the U.S.:

Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health (PRCH) and the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) published an overview of abortion in 2003-JAN. ₃ Some of the facts mentioned are:

	52% of pregnancies are intended (at the time of conception) ; 48% are unintended (1994 data).
	Of the approximately 3 million unintended pregnancies each year in the U.S., 47% are terminated by abortion, 40% result in live births, and 13% end in miscarriages.
	There were 1.31 million abortions in the year 2000.
	2.1% of all women of child-bearing age (15 to 44) had an abortion in the year 2000.
	The annual rate of abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age has dropped from 30 in 1980, to 21 during the year 2000.
	The report quotes Darroch and Singh who concluded that the declining pregnancy rate among teens is primarily due to better contraceptive use, and secondarily due to lower rates of sexual intercourse.
	The vast majority of are elective. Women generally decide to have an abortion because of economic or other personal reasons. Approximately ten to fifteen thousand abortions terminate pregnancies which resulted from rape or incest each year. This is on the order of 1% of all abortions.
	67.3% of women who have abortions have never been married; 17% are married; 15.6% are separated, divorced or widowed.
	71% of legal abortions are performed in clinics that specialize in abortion. About 22% are done in other clinics. Only 5% are done in hospitals.
	There are about 430 clinics that specialize in abortion, and 400 multi-functional clinics that perform some abortions in the U.S. These numbers have remained relatively constant from 1980 to 2000.
	Abortions cost on the order of $400 if performed during the first trimester. Costs go up greatly later in gestation.
	In 2001, NARAL stated that more than 2,400 acts of violence have been reported against abortion providers since 1997. This included bombings, arson, death threats, murders, kidnapping and assault.
	The abortion rate in the U.S. is lower than in the rest of the world. About 5% of the world's population live in America and are responsible for about 3% of the abortions. The abortion rate (number of abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age -- 15 to 44) is 23 for the U.S. but 35 for the world.

You can safely buy these books on abortion from Amazon.com's online bookstore:

References:

The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today.

1. "About AGI," at: http://www.agi-usa.org/about/
2. "Contraception Counts," AGI, at: http://www.agi-usa.org/
3. "An Overview of Abortion in the United States," PRCH & AGI, 2003-JAN, Page 10, at: http://www.agi-usa.org/ You need software to read these files. It can be obtained free from:
4. Ibid, Page 12.
5. Lawrence Finer & Stanley Hensahw, "Estimates of U.S. Abortion Incidence in 2001 and 2002," The Alan Guttmacher Institute, 2005-MAY-18, at: http://www.guttmacher.org/
6. "Decline in Number and Rate of U.S. Abortions Continues, New Analysis Shows. Meanwhile ,UK Rates Increase," LifeSite, 2005-AUG-02, at: http://www.lifesite.net/

Copyright © 1995 to 2005 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Last updated: 2005-AUG-03
Author: B.A. Robinson

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