Study Finds the Abortion Rate Dropped To a Historic Low in 2014

Brittany M. Hughes | January 17, 2017
DONATE
Font Size

The rate of abortions performed in the United States dropped to a historic low in 2014, falling below one million procedures for the first time since 1975.

According to a new study, titled “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2014,” the national abortion rate fell to 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 in 2014, the lowest rate ever recorded (by contrast, the rate in 2008 was a much higher 54 abortions per 1,000 women, the study added).

Researchers noted that the national abortion rate declined 14 percent between 2011 and 2014 alone.

Additionally, while an estimated 1.06 million abortions were performed in 2011, approximately 926,200 were performed in 2014. (These figures are by no means exact, as even the Center for Disease Control relies on voluntary reporting to estimate the number of abortions that occur per year in the U.S.) And, while 21 percent of all pregnancies were terminated in 2011, a slightly lesser 18 percent of pregnancies ended in abortions in 2014. 



The decline could be partially due to a recent decrease in the number of abortion clinics, which fell 6 percent between 2011 and 2014, the study noted.

Of those who are still getting abortions, about 75 percent are low-income women and two-thirds already have at least one child, lead author Rachel Jones told the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute. And, while the overall number of abortions has decreased along with the abortion rate, the number of pill-induced abortions is up from 24 percent in 2011 to 31 percent in 2014.

But perhaps most notable is exactly where abortion rates tended to decline. Abortions dropped across all four regions in the country; however, according to the study, abortions fell most rapidly in the South and the West (both 16 percent), two demographics that vary widely on the political and social spectrums. For example, many states in the South have recently passed abortion-restricting legislation, such as bans on abortions after 20 weeks and higher standards for abortion clinics. However, abortion rates in the West, which includes liberal-leaning states like California, fell just as rapidly, calling into question claims by pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood who claim that higher restrictions on abortion make it impossible for women to obtain the procedure.

In fact, researchers added they didn’t find clear proof that abortion-restricting legislation had any definitive effect on the number of abortions in a state, explaining instead that “[t]he relationship between abortion access, as measured by the number of clinics, and abortion rates is not straightforward.”

And, while about half of all U.S. states have enacted new abortion restrictions in recent years, “no strong evidence exists that these restrictions were the main factor behind the decline in abortion,” researchers added.

The study also found that the decrease in abortions occurred along with a substantial rise in the use of contraceptives such as IUDs and birth control.

donate