Teen Abortion, Birth Rates Drop in 1996, AGI Reports

"Pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates among U.S. teenagers continued their downward trend in 1996," concludes a leading pro-abortion research organization in a report titled "Teenage Pregnancy: Overall Trends and State-by-State Information." The report was issued with much fanfare by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), a special research affiliate of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), the nation's largest provider and promoter of abortion.

The April 29 report is the latest in a series of reports published periodically by the influential AGI. As usual, this report offers the most up-to-date and detailed abortion statistics and incorporates U.S. government teenage birth statistics that are published on an annual basis. Also, because data gathering is a laborious process with some huge states such as California and Florida not providing numbers at all, the information is several years old.

According to AGI, the rate of abortions dropped to 29.2 per 1,000 women aged 15-19-a decline of 3% from the year before and nearly one-third from 1988. This is the lowest teen abortion rate in over two decades. The highest abortion rate was in 1988: 43.5 abortions per 1,000 teens aged 15-19.

Statistically speaking, the abortion rate refers to the number of abortions per 1,000 women. So, the 1996 teen abortion rate of 29.2 means that about 29 out of every 1,000 teens age 15-19 aborted.

By contrast, the ratio, as used by AGI, is quite different. The abortion ratio is the percentage of those teenagers who actually become pregnant who have an abortion. (This figure does not include miscarriages or stillbirths.) In 1996 it was 34.9%. In other words, for every 100 teens who became pregnant, 34.9 aborted. The figure in 1995 was 34.6%.

According to the AGI numbers, this slight change was due to an increase among non-white teenagers. In that group the proportion of teenage pregnancies ending in abortion rose from 39.9% to 41%, while staying the same among whites (32%).

This slight increase in abortion ratio accompanied a slight increase in teen abortions - - from 263,750 in 1995 to 263,890 in 1996.

In summary, even though there were fewer abortions per 1,000 teens aged 15-19 (the abortion rate), the likelihood that a given teen who did become pregnant would abort (the abortion ratio) was slightly higher in 1996.

(Both AGI's press release and a summary of the report are available on the Internet. See web addresses at the end of this article.)

Great Progress Since 1980s

According to figures released last December by the federal Centers for Disease Control, women 19 and under once accounted for nearly a third of all abortions. By 1996, that figure had dropped by one-fifth (to 20.3%).

The decrease in the number of abortions by teens during this time frame has been dramatic. In 1980, according to AGI, there were 444,780 abortions to women aged 15-19. While, admittedly, the 1996 figures were slightly higher than numbers for 1995, the 1996 total of 263,890 still represents a drop of over 40% from the high recorded in 1980. That is a remarkably encouraging development, in large measure a testimony to the patient educational and legislative work of right to lifers as well as the work of the pro-life crisis pregnancy centers.

The report also provided data on teenage pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates for each state in 1996. However, the data should be used with caution.

AGI's researchers admitted, "Because health department abortion statistics are imperfect or nonexistent in many states, care should be used in interpreting the teenage abortion and pregnancy data" (emphasis added).

Birth Data Update

Coincidentally, on April 29, the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) released its latest annual report on teenage births in the U.S. for the year 1997. The data in "Births: Final Data for 1997" showed that "the national birth rate dropped to a record low in 1997, due in part to the continuing decline in the teen birth rate across the country."

For 1997 the birth rate for girls aged 15-19 was 52.3 per 1,000 - - a 16% drop since 1991. Put another way, out of every thousand teenage girls, there would be about 10 fewer births in 1997 than in the same population of young women in 1991. The drop in birth rates was seen in every state and in every racial group.

The federal researchers noted, "It is the sixth year in a row that the teen birth rate has declined."

CDC Measures Ratio Differently

The story on this page includes an attempt to clarify the difference between the abortion rate and abortion ratio. Abortion rate refers, as it were, to the pool of eligible women - - in this instance women aged 15-19 - - most of whom have not become pregnant. This number is expressed per 1,000 women aged 15-19.

According to AGI, in 1996 the abortion rate for this category of teens dropped to 29.2 per 1,000. In other words, roughly 29 out of every 1,000 teens ages 15-19 aborted. Note: this number is not a percentage!

Abortion ratio, as defined by AGI, is a percentage. It addresses what happens not to all women aged 15-19 but only those who actually become pregnant. In 1996, the abortion ratio was 34.9%. This means that for every 100 teens aged 15-19 who did become pregnant, 34.9 of them aborted. Note: this does not include miscarriages or stillbirths.

For years one source of unending confusion has been that the other major source of abortion data - - the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) - - expresses abortion ratio as a proportion, not a percentage.

The CDC defines abortion ratio as the number of abortions for every 100 live births.

Web sites for AGI's Teenage Pregnancy report:

www.agi-usa.org/pubs/archives/newsrelease_teen_preg.html and www.agi-usa.org/pubs/teen_preg_stats.html