Abortions Hit Lowest Number Since 1976

[sofa king]

Source: Washington Post

The number of abortions performed in the United States dropped to 1.2 million in 2005 -- the lowest level since 1976, according to a new report.

The number of abortions fell at least in part because the proportion of women ending their pregnancies with an abortion dropped 9 percent between 2000 and 2005, hitting the lowest level since 1975, according to a nationwide survey.

At the same time, the long decline in the number of abortion providers appears to be stabilizing, at least in part because of the availability of the controversial French abortion pill RU-486, the report found, because some physicians who do not perform surgical abortions provide it to their patients.

...

The total number of abortions among women ages 15 to 44 declined from 1.3 million in 2000 to 1.2 million in 2005, an 8 percent drop that continued a trend that began in 1990, when the number of abortions peaked at more than 1.6 million, the survey found. The last time the number of abortions was that low was 1976, when slightly fewer than 1.2 million abortions were performed.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/16/AR2008011603624.html?hpid=topnews

---

I included that stray fourth paragraph because I think it shows how rock-steady the abortion rate has been through thick and thin. Since 1976, the number of abortions performed in America has never deviated in either direction by more than 200,000.

I think that the last thing our god-and-dinosaur fearing friends across the aisle want is an end to the abortion issue, because then they'll have no way to motivate the most close-minded and hateful of their constituents. But if they do manage to close off that option, say in this last year of the Worst Presidency Ever, I think this story suggests that what we'll wind up with is somewhere around 1.4 million illegal abortions performed each year, with predictable side effects.

[AndyTiedye]

1. They Can Always Demand More

If they win on abortion they'll go after birth control.
If they win on gay marriage, they'll try to lock gays up just for being gay.

With one more of them on the Supreme Court, they could do it, too!

[Megahurtz]

61. Those Freaks Have Already Been

trying to go after birth control!

[humbled_opinion]

2. The number seems pretty high

Don't you think this sparks the controversy of women using Abortion as a form of Birth Control?

I mean a couple hundred thousand because of poor planning, disease, rape, incest, etc seems legit but this number seems excessive to me...

I mean just saying I am all for a womans right to choose but I think both men and women need to be more responsible.. this doesn't say much for the efforts of educating our young folks regarding responsiblity of birth control.

[superconnected]

4. In a country with 300 million people? 150 million women? I thought the number was ghastly low.

[humbled_opinion]

5. Wow you stopped short on that math

of Child bearing age = xxx
Sexually active = xxx
not trying to have a baby = xxx (over 4 million live births per year)
not on any form of birth control = xxx

Again the argument could be made that because the number of abortions Post Roe V Wade has not significantly changed then education methods on alternatives to abortion have not worked and that women are still using Abortion as a form of Birth Control.

[superconnected]

9. What math, we have 150 million women in the country

only 1.2 million abortions per year sounds great no matter how many child bearing age moms there are when you look at that we have 150 million females in this country. Even if only 1 third are of child bearing age, it looks great.

having the same amount of abortions as in 1976 with population that went up 100 million or more, also looks great.

[humbled_opinion]

14. So what exactly is our goal?

Is it to accept 1.2 million abortions or is it to educate women and try to reduce the overall number of abortions? Don't fall down the slippery slope

[superconnected]

40. Why would your goal be to reduce abortions? I don't care how many there

are as long as women have them available.

Ya got a quota on how many abortions should be legal or something?

[Bacchus39]

44. its not like its bad news though, unless you're an abortion doctor

n/t

[Megahurtz]

62. You Took The Words

right out of my mouth! :thumbsup:

[alstephenson]

11. "but this number seems EXCESSIVE"????

Who are you to judge which abortions are "necessary" and which are "excessive"? You are "all for a womans right to choose"? Doesn't sound like it to me.

[humbled_opinion]

12. Please... Hyperbole...

Yes a women has the right to choose.. However, A women has the responsibility to attempt not getting pregnant in the first place... If a Women abuses her right to choose thats how the Right finds a way to take that right away from her. The number is excessive period. I hope for less abortions not more. It is not a positive thing stop trying to spin it. Any abortion is a negative it is the product of either poor planning or in some cases negligence on the womens part...

Lets hold just a little bit of Personal Responsibilty up for this issue please.

[KAZ]

15. "On the woman's part"? Yeah, the man had nothing to do...

... with it. Oh wait, I get it. These were all in-vitro unwanted pregnancies.

[humbled_opinion]

17. Such cynasism really.

Well there you go now you just made my case stronger for me because whatever number you can wittle down to as irresponsible pregnancies you have to then cut that number in half...

But since you broached the subject of the silent partner... Why is it that a Women is the only one allowed to choose... If I inadvertently impregnated a women i.e., the condom broke and she had not resonable expectation to think that i wanted a child since I took the precautions of Birth Control.. If she chooses to stick me with that Pregnancy what can I do? Legally I am bound to pay child support until that child is 18.... This practice has been going on for awhile by some women..

Why are those statistics not elaborated?

I think too that our educational process has been including the responsibilities of the man regarding the issue of pregnancy so in fact it takes a pretty stupid man to engage in sex with a women who says she has taken precautions but then winds up being pregnant...

Now go back to the math digest all that and tell me that 1.2 million abortions per year are acceptable....

[Scout]

32. i knew you were a man even before you admitted it.... n/t

[humbled_opinion]

49. But you still refuse to answer my question?

Typical, emotinally charged responses is all you can froth yourself into.

[Scout]

60. first, please learn to use spell check...

it's c y n i c i s m
and e m o t i o n a l l y

you're so funny ... you think my response was emotional and i've frothed myself into something ... so typical for a man, automatically accuse a woman of being emotional!

i'd hardly call stating my belief that you were a man emotional, and i'm certainly not "frothed"

A man does not get to choose whether or not a pregnant woman has an abortion or not because it is not his body. He is not the one pregnant. His life, health and physical well-being are not at risk. Simple, no?

Your posts are so full of whining and self pity!

But since you broached the subject of the silent partner... Why is it that a Women is the only one allowed to choose... If I inadvertently impregnated a women i.e., the condom broke and she had not resonable expectation to think that i wanted a child since I took the precautions of Birth Control.. If she chooses to stick me with that Pregnancy what can I do? Legally I am bound to pay child support until that child is 18.... This practice has been going on for awhile by some women..

poor, poor baby ... if you're going to worry about your sperm, be more careful where you leave it.

[Skittles]

67. LOL that was pretty f***ing obvious from the start

:rofl:

[zanne]

54. I knew you were a man without even looking at your profile.

You seem to put most of the blame on the woman. If more men practiced birth control, the number of abortions wouldn't be, as you put it, "excessive".

[Skittles]

68. yup

you never hear these sanctimonious pricks advising men to keep it in their pants, do you?

[Feron]

71. Men have a choice.

Before you sleep with someone make sure that both of you use BC if you don't want children. Additionally make sure you are both on the same page should a pregnancy happen.

Unfortunately for women, there are many men who runaway from the responsibility of providing for a life that they helped create. That is why child support laws exist in the first place.

[Lars39]

16. A woman who chooses to abort *is* showing personal responsibility.

Can you cite anything that shows that women are *abusing* this? Didn't think so.

[humbled_opinion]

18. A well the number itself

I agree that a women who chooses abortion is showing personal responsiblity to some degree but after 30 years of PROGRESS. I would think that the number which is relatively the same as it was post Roe V Wade should be quite smaller.

I can cite common sense and logic you need to take the emotion out of it.

1.2 million obviously is having no impact on you as a statistic, So I assume you think that is an acceptable number?

Would you make any attempt to reduce that number?

[Lars39]

19. Just shows that there will always be a need and a want for abortions.

Self-determination doesn't and shouldn't fall by the wayside because of an unwanted pregnancy.

[humbled_opinion]

20. As should be

A women should always have a safety net and not be intimidated when it comes to being decider of her own body issues. My broader point was that as a people we in America should strive to set the example for the world by becoming more intuned to personal responsibility.

If in fact women and men are becoming more personally responsible then we should see a decline in the numbers of abortion procedures. Additionally with the advances of technology like RU-486 the procedures of abortion itself should dwindle to a very small number indeed.

I look forward to new studies on this and hope to see a decline in the future.

[Lars39]

21. You're dancing around the fact that abortion *is* birth control.

Other forms of birth control do fail, even multiple forms. "Personal responsibility" is a RW mantra.

[humbled_opinion]

22. No I'm simply stating

That we should do everything in our power to teach women and men that abortion should be the last resort not the first choice.

You are too cynical if you believe that Personal Responsiblity is political.

I agree that the RW has adopted it to try and influence the debate but as far as I am concerned Personal Responsiblity is and should be a Human mantra.

[TheWraith]

29. It's an incredibly bad form of birth control.

And the probablility of one form of birth control failing, let alone plural, is low almost the point of absurdity.

[Lars39]

30. Happens, though.

[TheWraith]

37. Yes, but I doubt the cases are higher than three, maybe four digits.

It's certainly not a major contributing factor to the number of abortions in the US.

[Scout]

33. here's another one uneducated about birth control! n/t

[TheWraith]

36. Yes, you are. NT

[IsItJustMe]

35. Bingo, tell it like it is. My exact thoughts.

[Xenotime]

55. We have used this as birth control too.

[CTyankee]

38. RU-486 IS an abortion! It is a "medical abortion."

You may be thinking about emergency contraception, the so called "morning after" pill, which is NOT an abortion.

[humbled_opinion]

50. but it is unclear

If those numbers are included in the above statistics... It certainly would be beneficial to break the Abortion rates down... I assumed it was not...

[LNM]

57. RU-486 was included in those numbers n/t

[antigone382]

58. The population has increased. The number of abortions has remained the same.

Therefore, statistically, the abortion RATE *has* decreased significantly.

[raccoon]

23. You're sure laying all the blame on women.

"However, A women has the responsibility to attempt not getting pregnant in the first place... "

"Any abortion is a negative it is the product of either poor planning or in some cases negligence on the womens part..."

Your profile says undeclared. I suspect you're a man.

[humbled_opinion]

26. Well at first I thought that

we were all intelligent human beings here and that it was assumed quite naturally that there is a 50/50 share in becoming pregnant but since the women seemed to object to my post making pregnancy a womens problem.. I further elaborated in subseqent posts...

In fact I agree totally with your stated position... but like I said in another post now that YOU brought up the unfairness of the burden of pregnancy and used that unfairness to support the female view isn't it similarly unfair that the man has no say when it is simply a Womens right to choose?

If say I took responsiblity for my actions by wearing a condom but it failed and the women knew that I had no intention or desire to get her pregnant and she subsequently gets pregnant and forces me to PAY child support for 18 years how is that fair? Don't I have the right to abort that child? Don't I get the right to choose?..

But I assume you meant we had a 50/50 share in the pregnancy seems a little bent maybe 75/25 in favor of the women...? but I digress.... Flame me.

[Scout]

34. "Don't I have the right to abort that child? Don't I get the right to choose?.. "

No.

Your point of choice is when you risk putting your sperm into someone else's body.

When you are the pregnant one, who will risk death and will be cut open from vagina to anus then you can be the one to decide. Until then, no. Life sucks, get used to it.

[humbled_opinion]

51. I totally agree...

But you also have the responsibility of not creating that child up front and foremost.

I wear a condom everytime... However I have had one break and one came off too so it is not 100 percent... Just like the womans choices are not 100 percent either... and yes abortion can exist as a safety net for these instances... I agree with all that

and since you stated...

"Until then, no. Life sucks, get used to it."

I assume then that you agree... Women have more of a responsibility to ensure they do not get pregnant...

Take the emotion out... Logic dictates if you have 100 percent of the control of the product then you also take more percent of the responsibility in whether or not the product gets created...

When we really get to the 50/50 equality part that will be a good day for sure... "I have a dream that one day......."

[Scout]

31. oh for fuck's sake, how ridiculous can you get?

"Any abortion is a negative it is the product of either poor planning or in some cases negligence on the womens part"


yeah, cuz birth control never fails, wanted fetus's never have abnormalities, women's health is never threatened by a planned, wanted pregnancy.

you seem pretty uneducated about abortion and birth control and women... :eyes:

oh, and it's "a woman" or "several women" not "a women"

[humbled_opinion]

52. You over analyzed what I said..

I am fully educated on abortion and birth control...so ad-hominem attacks are futile. I agree that women who require abortion because of B/C failure or health or abnormalities or rape etc is perfectly legitimate. My point is the number is excessive. In fact with the majority of America's population 40 y/o and over my assumption was that the number of abortions would drop significantly over time when more reliable forms of B/C became available and more education was done on the subject. It just appears that is not the case.

[noiretextatique]

56. shut up...thanks. eom

[Megahurtz]

63. Then Maybe Men Should Be Responsible And Fixthedix

for a change! Stop blaming the women! Stop the swimmers!

www.fixthedix.com

[Feron]

72. Such misogyny.

Even the most careful woman can get pregnant. My mother used birth control the night I was conceived. Shit happens even to those who throughly plan.

Women have abortions for a variety of reasons and numbers alone do not tell us why. And yes, having an abortion is considered an act of personal responsibility if she knows that she cannot continue a pregnancy. Getting an abortion is not the cakewalk that anti-choicers portray it as. While I have not had one, I know a woman who did and she described it as being a hard, but correct, decision.

Furthermore, women who get pregnant on accident should not be punished by being forced to give birth. Nor are they horrible irresponsible people.

And women who have had repeat abortions should have contraception counseling and not judgment. And everyone should have affordable and ready access to contraception (including the pill) along with information.

I'm all for prevention, but making sweeping statements about women who have had abortions is ignorant at best and misogynistic at worst. You can't judge someone unless you walk a mile in their shoes.

[bullwinkle428]

28. I don't see anywhere in your post where you mention

how often birth control fails - no method is guaranteed 100% effective every single time. I personally know of more than one case of conception taking place when birth control was used!

[DemIdeals]

45. A WOMAN HAS NO SUCH RESPONSIBILITY

And I'm speaking as a man here.

My wife had two abortions, because we had two accidental pregnancies. She was my girlfriend back then and neither of us were smart about birth control and so she had to get two abortions. We are married now and have a beautiful son. Don't you be all high and mighty and call the number excessive when you HAVE NO CLUE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.

A right to privacy means exactly that- privacy. Keep your nose out of other people's business. These are not your fetuses.

[humbled_opinion]

48. I simply take the emotion out of it.

The fact is the number is high. Education on birth control, which by the way definately needs improvement, should have impacted the number more significantly than it has. My point about abortion is that it is something that all parties (man and woman) should work to prevent either by birth control, proper planning, or new technology like RU-486. Your ad-hominem attacks on me don't change the fact that preventing unwanted pregnancy should be the goal. Or do you feel that it is not societies business to get involved in helping the uninformed prevent pregnancy but rather subject women to abortion as a means to an end? I assume Your personal situation was a bit in the past when birth control methods were not discussed or made available (certainly not kitchen table discussions) and therefore it is perfectly understandable the path that you had to choose. I also assume that you will educate your children as to their responsibility not only as it relates to fighting diseases such as HIV but also because we have come such a long way in preventing unwanted births.

[DemIdeals]

53. no my situation was 5 and 7 years ago, respectively

nt

[Megahurtz]

64. Fixthedix Dude

and abortion should always remain totally legal!

There's some improvement for ya!

www.fixthedix.com

[Phillycat]

69. Why?

You say "My point about abortion is that it is something that all parties (man and woman) should work to prevent..." and I ask why? Why do you believe abortion is inherently bad? There are no scientific studies to show that it does any long-term physical or emotional harm to the woman, and being that a few cells are being discarded, which happens each month during ovulation (unless the woman gets pregnant) and whenever a guy masturbates...why is abortion a bad thing? Personally, if a woman wants to use it as birth control, I can't see any reason why not.

[dkofos]

3. And teenage pregnancy is rising.

[humbled_opinion]

6. Of Course we have a society addicted to

Brittany Spears

[mzmolly]

7. Is this just surgical abortions? Is RU-486 included in the stats?

The article isn't clear (to me) anyone else?

[humbled_opinion]

13. Well my assumption was surgical...

LOL so my defensive stance may seem a bit over indulgent if in fact this includes the morning after pill... hmmmm The article is unclear...

[CTyankee]

39. Just to clarify and educate for you: RU486 is a medical abortion, the morning after pill is not.

In fact, the morning after pill does not work if a woman is pregnant. It is a method of contraception, a different formulation of birth control pills. Got it?

[ecstatic]

8. Are women less fertile? And Plan B is helpful, I'm sure nt

[0007]

10. Abortions performed by coathangers?

[raccoon]

24. One reason might be a lot of women don't have access to a safe, legal abortion.

the nonprofit Alan Guttmacher Institute...found that 1,787 doctors, clinics and hospitals provide abortion, just 2 percent fewer than in 2000. But 87 percent of U.S. counties had no abortion provider, meaning women often must travel to get one."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080117/lf_nm_life/abortion_usa_dc

[hyphenate]

25. Some women are going to always go with an abortion

instead of carrying an unwanted fetus. And yes, part of it is lack of education on the part of some that leads to the abortion in the first place. Better education, however, won't help a percentage of that entire group, who choose to homeschool on the basis of sex education being taught in public schools. One fundie once said to me on a board, "I don't want to teach my daughter how to put a condom on a banana." If these kids, who are being controlled by the hard line fundies, get out into the world without clearer instructions on sexual responsibility, they are going to continue to choose unwisely and end up pregnant without any recourse available.

I probably sound like I'm overstating this, but I'm not, though the number of people who are party of that minority group might be relatively small, it still goes into the results of homeschooling by those who seek to keep knowledge away from their kids, instead of being truly responsible parents.

And the reason the current numbers are down is because the current regime has cut off support for birth control being discussed with young girls to the extent that abortion isn't even mentioned in some literature propagated by the faith-based charities that the Bush administration is giving money to.

Education to ALL children, from about the age of 12 on up would certainly see more abortions if children were given the many alternatives, but most of them would likely fall into the first trimester instead of the third trimester, and thus would not fall into the slimily named "partial birth abortions." The better informed the kids are, the more healthy choices they have.

Abortion is not going to disappear--ever. If it is removed as a legal choice, it will go back to its origins and become illegal, and the same harms that were noted back in the time it was made a legal choice will return, and we can't afford to have our children or grandchildren paying for the intolerance of the religious right.

I know some whacked out right wingnuts who vote on that issue as their only criteria to vote for a candidate. These one issue voters are going to turn the tide on abortion and make it difficult to get and/or legal. But the one thing progressives have is a majority of people continuing to support abortion as a choice. We just have to make sure that we can get out the vote to cancel out the religious assholes who want to control all bodies belonging to women. And that includes a lot of women out there as well who are hypocrites to their gender. They've been brainwashed to vote against their own best sense.

[humbled_opinion]

27. hmmm

"They've been brainwashed to vote against their own best sense"

Sort of like Al-Qaida and the Taliban... Maybe if we make that case the idiots on the Right will see the rationale... I mean make it about Terra and you can capture their attention...

[hyphenate]

43. It won't happen, unfortunately

There are far too many women who have such low self esteem and poor images of themselves that they can't or won't stand up to the men in their lives, whatever relation the man happens to be. And enough of these men are control freaks who will abuse women regardless.

And that's just here in the US. Elsewhere in the world, women suffer such abuses that it's horrifying. It's still apparent that women don't have a whole lot of power, regardless of what is generally stipulated. And yes, the fundamentalist Muslims have terrifying laws against women, but so do the fundie Xtians as well. I guess I don't know which is worse--infibulation or incest.

Even here, black men had voting rights 50 years before women were given that same right. That should explain some of it--we're like the last rung on the ladder when it comes to any kind of human rights.

And as I said, we do a lot of damage to ourselves as well, whether deliberately or unconsciously. We've been conditioned to remain second class citizens for millennia--it's probably going to take another couple of millennia before we can shake off that brainwashing. I sure hope not, but with some of the men in this world, it's not like it couldn't happen.

[knitter4democracy]

I went to a small evangelical Christian college. You're totally right.

I ended up having to do sex ed for several girls in the dorm. They knew nothing about their own bodies, let alone anything about pregnancy and how to avoid it. They didn't even know much about their own cycles. It was infuriating.

Some friends of ours got preggers and went to the church-run pregnancy crisis center. The chick there told them that they saw at least ten or twelve a year in the office. It was news to all of us, considering there weren't ten or twelve girls having babies and getting kicked out every year. Those girls were getting abortions.

[shanti]

41. i believe it

just by observing what is happening at my son's hs. there have been at least 20 girls having babies, and most of these are little white girls, the ones that typically get abortions. *smh*

[Megahurtz]

65. I Don't Know Why That

would be.

California is the most Pro-Choice State ever, and even if they would ever successfully overturn Roe vs. Wade, there are so many politicians here fighting for Pro-Choice that the least that would ever happen is that it would be left up to the individual States.

It's not that difficult to obtain an abortion in California. Which makes me wonder why are so many of these teens having babies?
Is it because of the RightWingNut's "abstinence" funding and lack of birth control education maybe?

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

42. that explains all the fucking morons i guess

...who otherwise should have been flushed down the pan.

[Megahurtz]

66. LOL Perfect. n/t

[idgiehkt]

46. from what I can tell it's proportional to the rate of births

if you look at the graph here (scroll down slightly)
http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/07statab/vitstat.pdf

Births peak in '90 just like the abortion rate does (births per 1000 is what I'm looking at), when the rate of births go down so does the rate of abortion. One would expect them to oppose each other and they don't ...lower birth rate - fewer abortions, higher birth rate - higher # of abortions. A chart with Guttmacher and CDC #'s follows parallel to the rate of births: http://www.nrlc.org/abortion/facts/abortionstats.html (sorry it's a pro-life source but that is even better.) My guess is that the rate of pregnancy is what has fallen, because the births start falling in the late 80's, due probably to condom use when AIDS awareness began to spread. I'm also wondering if this drop is proportional to the % of the population that is actually fertile since the drop seems to coincide with the onset of menopause of the baby-boomer generation. I can't find anything in these numbers that suggests that anti-abortion forces have made an impact on the # of abortions, based on what I've seen. A rough estimate of the # of pregnancies per year in the U.S. is supposed to be like 6 million but that is an estimate, there's no way to really know that number.

[mwb970]

47. A state by state analysis would be interesting.

I found this item in the LA Times:

Abortions down 25% from peak
by Stephanie Simon (LA Times, January 17, 2008)

"We are making progress, state by state and law by law," said Denise M. Burke, vice president of Americans United for Life.

Some of the biggest drops in the abortion rate, however, have come in states that do not impose tight restrictions.

Oregon, for instance, was rated this week by Americans United for Life as the nation's "least pro-life state," yet its abortion rate dropped 25% from 2000 to 2005 -- more than any state except Wyoming.

California also was ranked hostile territory by Americans United for Life, but its abortion rate fell 13%, significantly more than the national average. "Abortion rate" refers to the number of abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age.

Is this yet another case where a social problem is found mostly in "red" states?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

59. Read "Freakonomics".

The authors have a chapter where they look at the data from the early 1970s when abortion was legalized in New York, California, and a few other states, before early abortions were legalized nationwide in January of 1973 with the Roe v. Wade decision.

They looked at the crime statistics. A huge crime wave was predicted for the late 1980s and early 1990s, when a fresh crop of teenage boys, in their most crime-prone years, was predicted, who would have been born in the early 1970s.

However, this crime wave did not materialize. And the crime rates dropped in New York, California and other states that legalized abortion before 1973. It dropped in all the states shortly thereafter, mirroring the time lag in legalization of early abortion.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

70. Are these numbers really accurate?

I mean, with this administration, and their "fuzzy math"..

I'm at a point I just don't believe anything coming out of D.C. being correct.