The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has just released a new report on abortions in America, which revealed a slight uptick in the rate of abortions since 2019 following years of decline. 2021 marks the second consecutive year with a rise in abortions following nearly 10 years of decline.
According to the Christian Post, the CDC released its latest "Abortion Surveillance Report," which details the "number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions and number of abortion-related deaths in the United States" in 2019. The CDC gathered data in the report based on statistics submitted by 47 out of the 50 states, as well as New York City.
The report revealed that among reporting areas, there were 625,346 abortions performed in 2019, a 1.7% increase from the 614,820 performed in 2018. When data from the District of Columbia is included, the number of abortions performed in 2019 rise to 629,898. The yearly reports however, do not include data from California, Maryland and New Hampshire.
The CDC report also found that the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 saw a slight increase of 11.3 to 11.4 in 2019, while the abortion ration or the number of abortions per 1,000 live births rose six points from 189 to 195. However, while abortion rates, abortion ratio, and the number of abortions all increased between 2018 and 2019, the numbers have actually decliend overall since 2010.
The CDC reported that between 2010 and 2019, the otal number of abortions fell by 18% from 762,755, while the abortion rate dropped to 21% from 14.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years. Moreover, the abortion ration also decreased to 13% from 225 abortions per 1,000 live births), respectively." Researchers said, "Abortion rates decreased from 2010 to 2019 for all women, regardless of age."
The CDC also found that the decrease in abortion rate was most significant among adolescents. The report said that abortion ratios either decreased or stayed the same from 2010 to 2019 for all age grounds except for girls aged at least 15 years old. Moreover, the decrease in abortion ratio was highest among women aged less than or up to 40 compared to any other age group.
In 2017, the CDC saw the lowest abortion statistics, with the number of abortions performed dropping to 609,095, abortion rate dropping to 11.2, and abortion rate reaching a low of 185. Meanwhile in 2019, chemical abortions through what is called the "abortion pill," accounted for up to 43.7% of all abortions.
In 2018, chamical abortions accounted for 40% of all abortions, but in 2018 and 2019, most abortions were done surgically. However, surgical abortions also dropped from 59.9% in 2018 to 56.2% in 2019.
These statistics are of importance now more than everw as the Supreme Court mulls over whether they should uphold a bid to overturn a Mississippi law that bans abortion after 15 weeks. According to the New York Post, justices met on Wednesday to hear arguments brought forth by the state of Mississippi, which argued that the Supreme Court should uphold its ban on abortion beginning 15 weeks by overturning its historic Roe v. Wade decision back in 1973.
Conservatives and Republicans are hopeful that Roe v. Wade would eventually be overturned as given the conservative majority of six justices, who signaled they would uphold the Mississippi law after two hours of arguments on Wednesday.
