Hot off the Press: US Abortion Rate Declines

Abortion Rate At Lowest Level In More Than Three Decades.

Major newspapers, wire sources and other media outlets report that the US abortion rate has reached its lowest level since 1973, according to a study called “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2011,” which was issued by the Guttmacher Institute, a supporter of legal access to abortion.
        The New York Times (2/3, A10, Eckholm, Subscription Publication) reports that in the US, “the abortion rate...declined to its lowest level in more than three decades in 2011, according to a new report released Monday.” The report also found that “the decline in abortions from 2008 to 2011 was mirrored by a decline in pregnancy rates.”
        According to the Washington Post (2/3, Somashekhar), the report found “there were fewer than 17 abortions for every 1,000 women in 2011, the latest year for which figures were available.” This represents a decline of “13 percent from 2008 and a little higher than the rate in 1973, when the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Roe v. Wade decision.”
        USA Today (2/3, Jayson) reports that declines “were seen in all but six states.” Study author Rachel Jones “attributes the decline to more women using ‘highly effective contraceptive methods such as the IUD’ and the fact that the study period was during the recession and sluggish recovery.”
        The Wall Street Journal (2/3, A4, Radnofsky, Subscription Publication) notes that from 2008 through 2010, US states enacted 44 laws that restricted how abortion is regulated. In 2011, another 62 laws were passed, but many of these were not immediately put into effect following their passage.
        The Los Angeles Times (2/3, Hamedy) reports other findings from the report, such as the fact that “more abortions came earlier in the pregnancy and medication abortions constituted a larger share of the total.” The report, called “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2011,” noted, “An estimated 239,400 early medication abortions were performed in 2011, representing 23% of all nonhospital abortions, an increase from 17% in 2008.” The report will appear in the March issue of the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health.
        The AP (2/3, Crary) notes that the highest rates of abortions were found in “in New York, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware and New Jersey; the lowest were in Wyoming, Mississippi, South Dakota, Kentucky and Missouri.” But, according to the report, “many women in Wyoming and Mississippi, where providers are scarce, go out of state to get abortions.”
        Also covering the story are Reuters (2/3, Moon), theHuffington Post (2/2, Bassett), the NPR (2/3, Rovner) “Shots” blog, and CQ (2/3, Adams, Subscription Publication).


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