US Abortion Rate Falls To Lowest Point In Decades: Study

The rate of abortions in the United States has fallen to its lowest level since Roe v. Wade, the controversial 1973 Supreme Court ruling that prevented states from outlawing the procedure, according to a new study from the Guttmacher Institute.

The Guttmacher Institute is a research and policy organization that works on reproductive health issues and advocates for legal abortion. For the study, Rachel Jones and Jenna Jerman, researchers with the institute, surveyed all abortion providers for the years 2013 and 2014. They estimate that in 2014, there were 926,200 abortions performed in the United States, a 12 percent drop from 2011.

That amounts to 14.6 abortions performed per 1,000 women that year; this is below the 1973 rate of 16.3 per 1,000 women and well below the peak in 1980-81 of 29.3 per 1,000 women.

The Guttmacher Institute's findings are in line with a 2015 survey from the Associated Press.

So what's causing the drop? The study didn't directly address this question, but the authors have their speculations.

“Abortion restrictions and clinic closures mean that patients may need to travel greater distances to access services,” said Jones in a statement. “The majority of abortion patients—75%—are poor or low-income, and nearly two-thirds are already parents. It can be very difficult for them to arrange for time off from work, transportation and child care. While many find ways to access care despite these obstacles, some of the abortion rate decline is likely attributable to women who were prevented from accessing needed services.”

According to their research, the number of abortion clinics conducting abortions dropped 6 percent nationwide between 2011 and 2014. This drop was sharper in the Midwest and in the South.

Kristi Hamrick, a spokeswoman for Americans United for Life, which advocates restricting abortion, told WBUR that she was skeptical of the institute's research but generally agreed with the results. She believes recent regulations on clinics have reduced the rate of abortions.

"These have been game-changers, and we see the abortion rate dropping in response," Hamrick said.

However, as the graph above shows, the abortion rate has been falling consistently since the 1980s. And the study didn't actually find a clear relationship between the state restrictions on clinics and local abortion rates.

While the number of clinics in the Midwest declined by 22 percent since 2011, the abortion rate only declined 9 percent. And as the authors point out, in the Northeast, the number of clinics actually increased by 14 percent, while the abortion rate declined 11 percent. These inconsistencies may mean these laws are less effective than they seem at reducing the abortion rate or that variations in the laws and states override the general effect. But these findings also suggest that access to contraception is also a reason for the reduction in abortions.

One reason to believe that contraception is playing a role is simple: There was no observable increase in birth since 2011 to offset the declining abortion rate. It seems instead that we have fewer pregnancies overall, particularly fewer unwanted pregnancies, which leads to fewer abortions.

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