Report: U.S. Abortion Rate Falls To Lowest Level In Decades
NEW YORK (KDKA) -- The number and rate of abortions in the United States have fallen to their lowest level in decades, according to new data released this week.
According to CBS News, the latest annual report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, incorporating data from 47 states, said the abortion rate for 2013 was 12.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years. That is down 5 percent from 2012, and is half the rate of 25 recorded in 1980.
The last time the CDC reported a lower abortion rate was 1971, two years before the U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision that established a nationwide right for women to have abortions.
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The CDC tallied 664,435 abortions in 2013 from the 47 states, down 5 percent from 2012 and down 20 percent from 2004. The CDC does not receive abortion data from California, Maryland and New Hampshire - and thus its total is less than the widely accepted current estimate of more than 900,000 abortions per year in all 50 states.
In 1990, when California was supplying data, the CDC recorded a peak of more than 1.4 million abortions.
Why is this happening?
The CDC report suggests there are a couple factors behind the abortion decline, including a sharp drop in adolescent pregnancies, expanded coverage of contraception costs by health care plans, and increased use of effective, long-lasting contraceptive methods such as intrauterine devices and hormonal implants.
