Study: Number of Abortions in US Hits 40-Year Low
The number of abortions in the U.S. is at a 40-year low, according to a new study published Tuesday by the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute.
The report counted 926,200 abortions in 2014, down by 12.5 percent from Guttmacher’s previous survey in 2011, which tallied 1.06 million abortions across the country. Only 14.6 abortions occurred per 1,000 American women between the ages of 15 and 44, which is the lowest rate since abortion was legalized nationally in 1973 by the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
The Guttmacher Institute was originally founded as part of Planned Parenthood and received direct financial support from the larger abortion organization until 2010.
Guttmacher’s report blames declining abortion rates on the availability of contraception and state regulations that make it more difficult to get an abortion. The research found that the states with the highest abortion rates were in the District of Columbia, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Florida, while the lowest rates were in Wyoming, Mississippi and South Dakota.
The Guttmacher Institute is the only entity that attempts to count all abortions in the U.S. as federal survey’s of the practice by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) don’t have data from California, Maryland or New Hampshire. The CDC’s data concurs that U.S. abortion rates are probably at their lowest point in decades.
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