Who Are We - Declining Abortion Rate? - A Closer Look

The abortion rate is trending down — as shown here for two population groups: whites and the "blacks and other" category. "Other" includes American Indians, Asians, and Pacific Islanders. Hispanics are included in both groups depending on their race.

Rates for selected years are shown in the following table in numerical format:

Abortions per 1,000 Women Aged 15 to 44

	1975	1980	1990	1997
All Races	21.7	29.3	27.4	22.2
Whites	17.2	24.3	20.9	16.1
Blacks and Other	49.3	56.5	54.4	47.8

In the graphic above, the straight lines indicate the linear trend of the data, and trends are down for both whites and the "black and other" population. Raw numbers show more fluctuations, rising uniformly from 1975 to 1980, declining until 1990, and again until 1997. It is these later periods that the trend reflects.

Another measure is abortions per 1,000 live births. This measure shows much the same pattern for All Races and whites but a growing rate for the black and other population. The next table provides the milestone numbers:

Abortions per 1,000 Live Births

All Races	331	428	389	340
Whites	276	376	318	250
Blacks and Other	565	642	655	680

In situations such as this one, it is worthwhile to look more closely at the underlying factors that influence the abortion rate. As pointed out in the last panel, 80.9% of abortions are sought by unmarried women — who tend to be predominantly young. This is borne out by the age structure of women getting abortions. Those in the 15 to 24 age group accounted, in 1997, for 50.7%, those in the 24 to 34 a group for 37.8%, and those aged 35 to 44 for 11.5% of all abortions. Thus abortions appear to be influenced by the age stratification of the childbearing cohort of the population.

Indeed, the downward trend in abortions seems to be due to changes in the age composition of fertile females. The two age groups that usually account for more than 80% of all abortions — the two largest in 1980 — have become the two smallest by 1997.

Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2001. 121^st ed. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2001, p. 71, Table 92. Data are originally from the Centers of Disease Control. Abortions in 1983 and 1986 are extrapolations. Data for 1976-1978 are not available. Trend data between 1975 and 1979 have been inserted into the graph. Population data are from the U.S. Bureau of the Census.