A recently released report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows that after years of steady increases through the 1980s, there has been a significant and widespread drop in teen abortion and pregnancy rates in the United States.
According to the June 26, 1998, issue of the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, from 1992 to 1995, abortion rates (the number of abortions per 1,000 women) for adolescents (those aged 15-19) declined in 40 out of the 43 states for which statistics were available. Teen birth rates declined in all states and the District of Columbia.
A June 26 Associated Press report identified the three states in which abortion rates did not decline as Maine, Ohio, and Oregon. The CDC was unable to obtain data on teen abortions from Alaska, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma because these states do not provide the CDC abortion statistics by age.
Overall, between 1992 and 1995, pregnancy rates (including births, abortions, miscarriages, and stillbirths) for teenage women aged 15-19 declined in all 43 states for which data were available.
Pointing to the encouraging numbers, NRLC President Wanda Franz, Ph.D., said, "The educational efforts of pro-lifers are succeeding in teaching Americans about the humanity of the unborn child. The more Americans learn about the developing child and the dangers of abortion to women, the more they reject abortion."
Interestingly enough, the CDC's figures actually show that the " relative decreases in abortion rates generally exceeded declines in birth rates," showing once again that behind some of these behavioral changes is a significant change in attitudes toward abortion. Fewer teens were giving birth, but the data show that it was not generally because they were turning to abortion. Fewer teens were getting pregnant. In addition, when they did get pregnant, a smaller ratio were choosing to abort their babies. More teens are choosing to let their unborn babies live.
Through opinion polls, we have known for some time that teens' attitudes were becoming more pro-life. An annual survey of incoming college freshmen conducted by UCLA showed that after a high of 65% in 1990, support for abortion declined for the fifth consecutive year, standing at just 54% for 1995's freshman class (Washington Post, 1/12/98). While this may overstate teen support due to biases built into the polling question, that the same question consistently garners an increasingly shrinking majority is evidence of a significant trend.
Now we know that more than opinions are changing, however. The CDC's special surveillance summary of July 3, 1998, "Abortion Surveillance United States, 1995," expanded on the 1995 abortion data released last December. CDC statistics show that the decline in the abortion rate, ratio, and the raw number of abortions occurring over the past several years is largely attributable to significant declines in teen abortions. The majority of abortions and the highest abortion rates are still found among women under 25 or over 40, but the rates and ratios for those groups have plummeted. Meanwhile the abortion rates and ratios for women aged 25 to 39 have remained relatively stable.
The abortion ratio (the number of abortions per 1,000 live births) for teens under 15 was 667 in 1995, the lowest number the CDC says it has ever recorded for this age group. That number fluctuated between 1,100 and 1,400 abortions per 1,000 live births for that group from 1974 until 1988, when it dipped below 1,000 for the first time. That decline has continued until the present day.
Less dramatic, but no less significant, the abortion ratio for teens aged 15 to 19 has also been in steady decline since the mid to late 1980s. Approaching 700 abortions per 1,000 births in 1983, the ratio has shown a steady slide through the late 1980s and early 1990s. By 1995, the ratio had dropped to 399 abortions per 1,000 births. (Abortions to women forty and over show a similar pattern, though the ratio peaked earlier and began its decline around 1980. The current abortion ratio for women 40 and over is 387 per 1,000 live births.)
The CDC speculates that the overall decline may be due to a number of factors, but seems to attribute this lower ratio to changes in "access to abortion services" and "abortion laws that affect adolescents (e.g., parental consent or notification laws and mandatory waiting periods)."
While it is true that there are fewer abortionists today, parental involvement laws have probably played a larger role in the decline, given that abortions were still legal and available in all 50 states in 1995. Twenty-two states now have substantive parental involvement statutes, 21 of those made operative since 1988.
Teens are more likely to make a snap judgement and try to cover up their pregnancy from their parents by having an abortion. Involved parents can help teens take a more reasoned and realistic approach, better assessing the situation and the long-term consequences of any decision.
Parents can help correct false impressions the teen may have gotten about her unborn child being nothing more than a "blob of tissue." They can help her evaluate and accept alternatives to abortion, options an abortion clinic "counselor" is unlikely to dwell upon. Parents can also help a teen appreciate and understand the physical and psychological risks of abortion, which may encourage her to let her baby live.
While legislation has provided the opportunity for the teen- parent dialogue, pro-life education and support for pro-life abortion alternatives have helped to convince teens and their parents to choose life rather than death for their unborn children.
Thanks to your efforts, more teens are hearing the truth about abortion. And the numbers tell us that more of those teens are choosing life.