David Crary reports for The Columbus Dispatch, June 8, 2015, that abortions are down in nearly every state, red or blue, by an average of 12% since 2010, according to an AP survey.
The drop in the number of abortions is most emphatic, of more than 15% in states like Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, and Oklahoma, where new laws make it harder to have them. But more-liberal states such as New York, Washington and Oregon also had declines of that magnitude, even as they maintained unrestricted access to abortion.
Explanations for the drop include:
- Pro-aborts attribute it to expanded access to effective contraceptives and a drop in unintended pregnancies. Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards said, “Better access to birth control and sex education are the biggest factors in reducing unintended pregnancies. More restrictive abortion laws do not reduce the need for abortions.”
- Some pro-lifers say there has been a shift in societal attitudes, with more women choosing to carry their pregnancies to term. United for Life president Charmaine Yoest suggested that the broad decrease in abortions reflects a change in attitudes among pregnant women: “There’s an entire generation of women who saw a sonogram as their first baby picture. There’s an increased awareness of the humanity of the baby before it is born.”
- One major factor has been a decline in the teen pregnancy rate, which in 2010 reached its lowest level in decades. There’s been no official update since then, but the teen birthrate has continued to drop, which experts say signals a similar trend for teen pregnancies.
The AP obtained the most-recent abortion numbers from the health departments of all 45 states that compile such data on a comprehensive basis. (States not compiling such data are California, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire and Wyoming.) With one exception, the data was from either 2013 or 2014 — providing a nationwide gauge of abortion trends during a wave of anti-abortion laws that gathered strength starting in 2011.
The pro-abort Guttmacher Institute said a total of 267 abortion restrictions have been enacted in 31 states since 2011. Among them are measures that ban most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, impose hospital-like physical standards on abortion clinics, and require doctors who perform abortions at clinics to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. While some of the new laws have been blocked by lawsuits, most have taken effect, contributing to closure of about 70 abortion clinics in a dozen states since 2010. States with the most closures include Texas with 27, Michigan and Arizona with about 12 and Ohio with at least four. Two clinics closed in Virginia, including one that was the state’s busiest.
The only states with significant increases in abortions since 2010 are Louisiana (12%) and Michigan (18.5%) , which have passed laws intended to restrict abortion. In both Louisiana and in Michigan, the increases were due in part to women coming from other states where new restrictions and clinic closures have sharply limited abortion access. Pro-life groups said many Ohio women are going to Michigan and many Texas women to Louisiana. But Lori Carpentier, chief executive of Planned Parenthood Mid and South Michigan, said inadequate public funding for family planning is a factor in Michigan’s increase.
Five of the six states with the biggest declines — Hawaii at 30%, New Mexico at 24%, Nevada and Rhode Island at 22%, Connecticut at 21% — have not passed any recent laws to restrict abortion clinics or providers.
~Éowyn
