The number of abortions in the United States reaches a historic low



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Fewer women in the United States have an abortion than in recent years Roe v. Wade, according to new government figures released Wednesday.

In 2015, 638,166 abortions were reported, compared with 652,639 abortions in 2014, a decrease of 2%. The abortion rate was 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2015, compared with 12.1 in 2014 and 15.9 in 2006.

In the years immediately following the legalization of abortion in 1973, the number of legal abortions increased significantly, reaching its peak in the 1980s. Abortions then began to decline very slowly until 2006- 2008, then they increased slightly and then decreased even more strongly in recent years.

The surveillance report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes at a hot time for the abortion policy in the country, Trump administration officials introducing new policies to reduce funding for Abortion providers and the state legislatures debating more and more restrictive laws in the matter. Just this week, a federal court in Mississippi blocked the state's ban against abortion after 15 weeks of gestation. In signing the bill, Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R) said he hoped to make this state "the safest place in America for an unborn child."

Although the CDC document did not explore the reasons for this decline, analysts cited improved access to birth control, which led to a decrease in unwanted pregnancies, particularly among teenagers, as well as state laws regarding parental consent; other conditions that make it more difficult for women to "

Analyzes have suggested that an improved use of contraception had played a role in long-term declines. In some states, reducing access to abortion services has also contributed, "said Rachel Jones, senior researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that advocates for women's right to abortion.

The data is not 100% complete – California, Maryland and New Hampshire did not participate and reports are better in some places – but they still provide a window into the overall trends and demographics of the applicants. abortion. The report shows huge variations by age, race and geographic region.

While the abortion rate declined in all age groups in 2015, women in their twenties accounted for nearly 60% of all abortions. The abortion rate was 19.9 for women aged 20 to 24 and 17.9 for women aged 25 to 29.

White women had the lowest abortion rate, at 6.8 abortions per 1,000 women, and black women had the highest abortion rate (25.1 per 1,000). "The findings of this report indicate that the number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions has decreased in all racial / ethnic groups, but that well-documented disparities persist," said Tara C. Jatlaoui, of the Reproductive Health Division of the CDC. -authors have written.

There was also considerable variation between jurisdictions, ranging from a rate of 2.8 abortions in South Dakota to 23.1 abortions in New York.

One of the major sources of controversy in recent years has been the widespread availability of medical abortions or pills such as the RU-486 that can be used to cause an abortion without surgery. In 2015, about a quarter of abortions involved medical abortion, which can only be done at the beginning of pregnancy.

The report did not have information on deaths due to abortion complications in 2015, claiming that the data was still being evaluated. In 2014, six women died as a result of a legal abortion.

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