A new report on abortion stats published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicates that abortions have decreased in the last year, a trend that has continued for the past 25 years. Because abortion reporting requirements vary from state to state, the numbers do not represent all abortions performed in the United States.
According to the latest data, published November 27, 2015, abortions fell by more than 31,000 from the previous year. In 2012, 699,202 abortions were reported to CDC, down 31,120 from the 730,322 abortions reported in 2011. From 2011 to 2012, the total number and ratio of reported abortions decreased 4% and the abortion rate decreased 5%. From 2003 to 2012, the total number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions decreased 17%, 18%, and 14%, respectively, and reached their lowest level in 2012 for the entire period of analysis (2003–2012).
AGE
The stats also showed that women in their 20’s accounted for the majority of abortions and had the highest abortion rates. However teens less than 15 years-old accounted for .4% of the reported numbers while those 15–19 years accounted for 12.2% of all abortions. From 2003 to 2012, the percentage of abortions accounted for by adolescents aged 15–19 years decreased 27% and their abortion rate decreased 40%. The numbers reflects polling data which shows that support for making abortion broadly illegal is growing fastest among young adults. In fact, for all Millennials in 2012, only 37% considered abortion morally acceptable.
RACE
Research shows that family planning centers and abortion facilities often set up their locations in or near minority communities. In addition, the largest provider of abortions, Planned Parenthood was founded by a radical advocate of racist eugenics. As a result, the numbers of abortions performed on minorities and specifically Black women remain disproportionately high.
In 2011, the CDC revealed that almost 56% of all abortions reported for race were done on minority women. According to the latest report dated November 27, 2015, in 2012, 55% of abortions reported for race/ethnicity were performed on Black or Hispanic women.
Among the 27 areas that reported abortions by race/ethnicity , non-Hispanic white women and non-Hispanic black women accounted for the largest percentages of abortions. According to the 2012 stats, Black women had the highest abortion rate (27.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years) and accounted for 36.7% of abortions reported for race/ethnicity while 18.7% of abortions were reported for Hispanic women. White women accounted for a slightly higher abortion percentage, 37.6% of reported abortions, but had the lowest abortion rate (7.7 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years).
GESTATION
The largest numbers of abortions were performed in the early trimester. However, over 6,000 abortions were performed at 21 weeks or greater. A 2014 report published by the Lozier Institute found that the United States is one of only seven countries in the world that permit elective abortion past 20 weeks. Efforts to ban abortions after 20 weeks have been opposed by the abortion industry, specifically Planned Parenthood. While Planned Parenthood publicly claims that abortions late in pregnancy are done mainly for severe fetal anomalies, undercover videos by The Center for Medical Progress disputed that claim. Live Action News has documented this contradiction in detail here.
According to the 2012 stats, only 467,959 abortions were reported to the CDC by gestation and broke down by weeks as follows:
- Less than 8 weeks 308,058
- 9-13 weeks 119,994
- 14-15 weeks 16,274
- 16-17 weeks 8,641
- 18-20 weeks 8,812
- 21 weeks and older 6,180
The CDC has been collecting stats on abortion since 1969 and data includes medical as well as surgical abortions. Although most reporting areas collect and send abortion data to the CDC, the data remains incomplete and stats that are submitted to the CDC are done voluntarily. In addition, the stats do not include abortions from every state including some states that tend to have high numbers of abortion clinics. But the yearly stats from the numbers that are collected indicate that abortions are decreasing.
This was confirmed by the Associated Press who surveyed abortion providers in 45 states earlier this year. Their data collected mostly from 2013 and 2014 found that abortions continued to fall in those years. According to the AP, declines were seen in states that have passed pro-life laws as well as in more abortion friendly states.
