NRL News
Page 9
October 2008
Volume 35
Issue 10

Abortion Rate Hits 30-Year Low,
Smaller Decrease among Black and Hispanic Women
By Dave Andrusko

While, thankfully, the number of abortions has continued to decline, a new study from the Guttmacher Institute concludes that the proportion of abortions among older women, women of color, and women who have already given birth has risen. By contrast, the unambiguous success story is among teenagers, whose abortions have dropped by huge numbers. Guttmacher formerly was the research arm of Planned Parenthood, but its results are still treated with deference.

Written by Stanley K. Henshaw and Kathryn Kost, “Trends in the Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions, 1974 to 2004” was officially released September 23. Guttmacher used data collected annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its own periodic surveys of abortion “providers.” A summary of the study’s findings can be read at www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2008/09/23/.

There is one begrudging concession to the work of the Pro-Life Movement: the “suggestion” that “at least a part of the decline in the abortion rate among these women [teenagers] was due to an increase in the proportion of unintended pregnancies continued to a birth … and changing attitudes toward abortion.”

First, the good news. The abortion rate fell to its lowest level since 1974—20 per 1,000 women of childbearing age (15–44). In 1980 there were 29 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15–44.

The proportion of abortions obtained by all categories of teenagers dropped, according to Guttmacher. For example, for women under 20, in 1974 they obtained exactly a third of all abortions. In 2004, that dropped by almost exactly half—to 17%.

Likewise, girls under 18 had only 6% of all abortions in 2004. In 1974 it was 2 1/2  times higher—15%. However, that decline did not manifest itself in older women.

The proportion of abortions obtained by women older than 30 increased by half—from 18% to 27%. Women in the middle (in their 20s) increased their proportion from 50% to 57%.

Newsweek put it this way: “What researchers found is contrary to what pop culture phenoms, from ‘Juno’ to Jamie Lynn Spears, might suggest: Teenagers are not the most likely to confront this issue, twenty-somethings are.” In fact, teenagers are confronting the “issue,” but they are choosing life.

Another sharp demarcation fell along racial lines. Abortions dropped among all groups, but not nearly as much for African-American and Hispanic women. For example, between 1974 and 2004, the abortion rate for black women fell by 15%; for Hispanic women it dropped by one-fifth; and for non-Hispanic white women it declined by 30%.

Consequently, by 2004, “there were 10.5 abortions per 1,000 white women ages 15 to 44, compared with 28 per 1,000 Hispanic women of that age and 50 per 1,000 black women,” the Washington Post reported. “That translates into approximately 1 percent of white women having an abortion in 2004, compared with 3 percent of Hispanic women and 5 percent of black women.”

In addition, for women who already had a child, the proportion of all abortions jumped from 46% in 1974 to 60% in 2004, Guttmacher reported.

NRL Director of Education Dr. Randall K. O’Bannon noted that while there is no new data in the Guttmacher report, the overall message is that the rate of abortion has declined by almost half since 1974.

“This is no accident,” O’Bannon said. “It reflects the hard work at the grassroots level and in the halls of the legislature.” It is distressing, he said, that while abortions have dropped among all ethnic groups, that decline was much less among black women and Hispanic women.