Abortion "Providers" and the Cost of Abortions.

Coincident with the drop in abortions, AGI tells us, has been a continuing decline in the number of abortionists, or as AGI puts it, "abortion providers."

There were 2,380 abortionists in 1992, 2,042 in 1996, and 1,819 in 2000, according to AGI. The figure for 2000 represents a drop of 11% from the 1996 survey and a decrease of over 37% from the all-time high of 2,908 recorded in 1982.

AGI reports that 61% of "abortion providers" perform fewer than 400 a year. The mega-clinics--those performing a thousand or more abortions a year--are responsible for approximately four of five of all the abortions, AGI reports.

AGI takes pains to point out that some 87% of U.S. counties lack an identified abortion "provider," counties in which it says 34% of women live. It admits, however, that such statistics may overstate the dearth in two ways.

First, a county without an abortionist may be adjacent to a county with one. Second, AGI notes, there may be counties in which abortionists are present but whose "services" aren't publicized.

While AGI advances "harassment" as one possible reason for the declining number of abortionists, it admits, "The decrease in providers was concentrated among those with small caseloads. Because many hospitals and physicians who did not perform abortions in 2000 performed few abortions in 1996, this decline probably had little impact on abortion incidence nationally."

In other words, some abortionists who performed few abortions in 1996 performed none in 2000, which accounts for most of the decline in the number of "abortion providers."