A new study has confirmed that abortion rates have dropped to its lowest rate since the 1970s.
Authors of the recent study, which has followed the decline since 2008, say that the low rate most likely has nothing to do with the recent state laws that are suppose to restrict the procedure and more to with birth control methods and “day-after” pills.
In 2011, the study showed that 16.5 out of a 1000 women, 15-44, revcieved the medical abortion which is the lowest statistic sense 1973, the year the Supreme Court legalized the procedure. The rate of births have also gone down which leads one to conclude that safety education, birth-control practices, and other “just in case” methods are becoming more and more popular.
However, they do have a definition for just one of the many “Just-in-Case” methods on which they include a non-surgical abortion procedure performed outside of the hospital. This procedure is still considered an abortion even though the recipient may not be sure they are even pregnant and that they are doing it just in case. This method has gone up 17% since 2008 which is parallel to the decline of actual surgically performed abortions.
One of the authors of the study has commented on the lack of evidence that state regulations have declined the number abortions by saying
“while most of the new laws were enacted in states in the Midwest and the South, abortion incidence declined in all regions.”
He also goes on to say
“And some states that are generally supportive of abortion rights, including those allowing Medicaid payment for abortions for poor women, experienced declines in their abortion rates comparable to, and sometimes greater than, the national decline”
Other likely reasons for the decline of abortion also include the economy and the recession that made it hard for women to afford abortions along with women choosing to not have children due to the lack of financial grounding. Between 2008-2011, fewer women,overall, got pregnant and the birthrate fell by 9%. The author of the study also commented on this development saying:
“Presumably then, more women and couples were making conscious decisions to avoid pregnancy and so resumed or continued using contraceptives.This strategy would be expected to have a bigger impact on the rate of intended pregnancies than on the abortion rate, but could also have averted the 5 percent of abortions that followed intended pregnancies”
- http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/01/31/269557336/abortions-reportedly-drop-to-lowest-rate-since-1970s
- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/03/us/abortions-declining-in-us-study-finds.html?_r=0