Abortion rate is lowest since before Roe v. Wade

Abortion rate is lowest since before Roe v. Wade November 30, 2016

photo-1452715923772-3af19799aef8_optThe abortion rate has dropped to the lowest point since 1971, two years before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nation-wide.  The rate, according to the latest figures which are from 2013, is now 12.5 abortions per 1,000 pregnancies.  That is half what it was in the 1980s.

But this still means some 900,000 abortions per year, still a ghastly figure.

From David Crary, CDC: US abortion rate falls to lowest level in decades, Associated Press:

The number and rate of abortions tallied by federal authorities have fallen to their lowest level in decades, according to new data released Wednesday.

The latest annual report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, incorporating data from 47 states, said the abortion rate for 2013 was 12.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years. That is down 5 percent from 2012, and is half the rate of 25 recorded in 1980.

The last time the CDC recorded a lower abortion rate was in 1971, two years before the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that established a nationwide right for women to have abortions. Abortion was legal in some states at that time.

The CDC tallied 664,435 abortions in 2013 from the 47 states, down 5 percent from 2012 and down 20 percent from 2004. The CDC does not receive abortion data from California, Maryland and New Hampshire — and thus its total is less than the widely accepted current estimate of more than 900,000 abortions per year in all 50 states.

Back in 1990, when California was supplying data, the CDC recorded a peak of more than 1.4 million abortions.

The CDC’s latest findings meshed with an Associated Press state-by-state survey conducted last year — with extensive data from 2014 — showing that abortions had been declining in virtually every state since 2010. There were big declines in conservative states passing laws to restrict abortions and also in more liberal states that protected abortion rights.

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