Why Abortion Rates Are Up In Georgia

GEORGIA — Abortion rates are declining nationwide, although Georgia is an exception to that trend, but the legislative push to get a case to the U.S. Supreme Court that would strike down Roe v. Wade isn’t a contributing factor to the overall decline, according to a new study released by the Guttmacher Institute. The number of abortions nationwide declined 19 percent from 2011-2017.

In Georgia, pregnancy terminations increased 0.7 percent, according to the study, even as fewer clinics offered abortion and restrictions were enacted during the same time frame.

Though 32 state legislatures passed 394 new restrictions on abortion from 2011-2017, abortion rates also fell in states with less restrictive laws, the reproductive health and rights research group said in its report. Instead, the biggest reason for the decline is that women aren’t becoming pregnant as often.

If abortion restrictions had been the force behind the abortion decline, birth rates would have increased, the Guttmacher Institute said. Instead, birth rates were down in every nearly every state.

Explanations for an increase in the state's abortion rate include the possibility that some of those women were not Georgia residents, and online access to medications that allow women to end a pregnancy on their own.

Notably, the report showed the U.S. abortion rate in 2017 was at its lowest level since 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided. The rate dropped to 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44, a decline of 8 percent from 2014.

Even if the flurry of anti-choice legislation isn’t driving down abortions, restrictions on a medical choice that has been legal for U.S. women for 46 years can “still inflict serious harm,” Elizabeth Nash, a senior policy manager at the Guttmacher Institute, said in an emailed statement.

“Underneath the national trend are the individual struggles and burdens that anti-abortion policymakers are creating for people within their states,” Nash said. “We need policies that ensure patients can obtain and afford reproductive health care from contraception, to pregnancy to abortion.”

While the number of clinics that perform abortions increased nationwide from 2011-2017, Guttmacher said women in some areas of the country don’t have a nearby option — especially if they live in the South, where the number of clinics decreased 9 percent.

In Georgia, the number of clinics providing abortions decreased to 15 from 19 between 2011 and 2017.

Guttmacher said TRAP — targeted regulation of abortion providers — played a big role in shutting down abortion clinics in some states, including Texas and Ohio, making it more difficult to get an abortion.

Georgia lawmakers enacted six pieces of legislation restricting abortion from 2011-2017. The Guttmacher Institute says that the state has these restrictions on abortion:

• A patient must receive state-directed counseling that includes information designed to discourage the patient from having an abortion, and then wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided.
• Health plans offered in the state’s health exchange under the Affordable Care Act can only cover abortion in cases of life endangerment or severely compromised physical health.
• Abortion is covered in insurance policies for public employees only in cases of life endangerment.
• The parent of a minor must be notified before an abortion is provided.
• Public funding is available for abortion only in cases of life endangerment, rape or incest.
• An abortion may be performed at 20 or more weeks postfertilization (22 weeks after the last menstrual period) only in cases of life endangerment, severely compromised physical health or lethal fetal anomaly. This law is based on the assertion, which is inconsistent with scientific evidence and has been rejected by the medical community, that a fetus can feel pain at that point in pregnancy.

National polls show unwavering support for abortion rights. The Pew Research Center said last month that support for legal abortion is as high now as it has been in two decades of polling, with 61 percent of U.S. adults saying abortion should be legal in most if not all cases. While the poll showed little appetite among respondents to see a complete reversal of Roe — only three in 10 wanted that — the results showed a major area of concern among the majority to be the same outlined in the Guttmacher report: In the Pew poll, 59 percent said some states are making it too difficult for women to get an abortion.

Some other findings from the report:

• Abortion rates decreased in almost every state, but there was no evidence linking the decline to abortion restrictions;
• Eighteen states did not enact any new abortion restrictions, yet they accounted for 57 percent of the decline in abortions nationwide;
• Only Georgia, four other states and the District of Columbia saw increases in abortion, and four of those states tightened abortion laws.

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