CDC releases report for 1999 More Good News: Abortions Continue to Decline.(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

On the heels of a report issued last summer showing another drop in abortions in 1998, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a new report showing a continued decline for 1999. Although the numbers are not as complete as those provided by other sources, the CDC numbers offer further documentation of a steady drop in the number of abortions.

According to the CDC's November 29, 2002, "Abortion Surveillance" report, 861,789 abortions were reported in 1999 by the same areas that that recorded 884,273 in 1998. This represents an important decline of 2.5%.

(CDC numbers are lower than the actual abortion figure, which is believed to be approximately 1.3 million, for two reasons. First, the CDC relies on state and city health departments to send their totals, as opposed to actively seeking out the figures. Second, as was the case in 1998, no data was received from four states--California, Alaska, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma. Having said that, the quality of the data is still very useful for interpreting trends and analyzing demographics.)

In addition to the decline in overall numbers, the CDC reports that there was a drop in the abortion ratio, the number of abortions per 1,000 live births. That ratio was 264 abortions for every 1,000 live births in 1998, but 256 per 1,000 in 1999. The U.S. has not seen a lower abortion ratio since the early days following Roe v. Wade.

The abortion rate--the number of abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age (15-44 years)--has stayed the same from 1997 to 1999: 17 per 1,000. Again one would have to go back to the early 1970s to find such comparatively low numbers. By contrast that number hovered between 20 and 25 per 1,000 for most of the 1980s and the first half of the 1990s.

Taken together, the data indicate two things. First, in recent years abortion has become a less common feature of an American woman's experience. Second, that a higher proportion of women who do become pregnant are choosing to bear, rather than abort, their babies.

The CDC speculates that the overall decline in abortions may be due to a number of factors, including a decrease in the number of "unintended" pregnancies, population shifts within the category from younger, more fertile to older, less fertile women, "reduced access to abortion services" prompted in part by parental involvement or waiting period laws, and increased use of contraception.