Induced Abortions

(AmeriStat, September 2000) In the United States, about one-fifth of recognized pregnancies end in induced abortions. The abortion rate per 1,000 women has declined in recent years, from a high of 29.4 induced abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 1980 to 22.9 per 1,000 women in 1996. In 1996, 1.4 million abortions were performed, down from an estimated 1.6 million in 1990. (The number of abortions is estimated by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, based on data from a national survey of providers.)

Between 1973 (the year that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional all remaining state laws outlawing most abortions) and 1996, more than 34 million legal abortions were performed in the United States.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, www.cdc.gov/nchs; Alan Guttmacher Institute, www.agi-usa.org.

Citations

S.J. Ventura, W.D. Mosher, S.C. Curtin, J.C. Abma, and S. Henshaw, "Highlights of Trends in Pregnancies and Pregnancy Rates by Outcome: Estimates for the United States, 1976-96," National Vital Statistics Reports 47, no. 29, (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 1999); and National Center for Health Statistics, Vital Statistics of the United States, 1993, Volume I, Natality (Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).

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