A

ABORTION

The technical definition of induced abortion is the re-
moval of products of conception from the uterus of a
pregnant woman. Throughout recorded history there
is evidence that women have found the means to limit
and space their childbearing through the use of in-
duced abortion. Women of all identities and living in
a wide variety of conditions all over the world contin-
ue to choose termination as one response to unin-
tended pregnancies. In 1997, approximately 20 out
of every 1,000 women in the United States aged fif-
teen to forty-four had induced abortions; this rate has
remained stable since 1995. Another way to express
the frequency of abortion is the number of induced
abortions compared with the number of live births; in
1997 this ratio was 306 abortions per 1,000 live births.
These statistics do not include abortions that happen
spontaneously, usually called miscarriages.

Who Has Abortions?

Nearly half (49%) of all pregnancies that occur in
the United States are not intended, and about half of
unintended pregnancies are resolved by abortions.
Most (58%) of the women who have abortions had
been using some form of birth control but became
pregnant because of the failure or misuse of the birth
control product/method. By the age of forty-five,
about 43 percent of women in the United States have
experienced at least one abortion. Among the women
choosing to have abortions at a given time, nearly half
(43%) have had at least one previous abortion.

There is not one particular type of woman who is

likely to have an abortion. More than half (55%) of the

women having abortions have had at least one child

already. About two-thirds of the women having abor-

tions have never been married. The majority (52%)

are younger than age twenty-five, but only 20 percent

are teenagers.

Women of all racial and religious groups obtain

abortions. The largest number (60%) of abortions are

performed on white women, but black women are

three times as likely and Hispanic women twice as

likely as white women to have an abortion in a given

year. Catholic women are equally likely to have abor-

tions as all women nationwide, but the rate of induced

abortion for Catholic women is actually 29 percent

higher than the rate for Protestant women.

Abortions occur for many reasons, and women

tend to have multiple explanations for their abortion

decisions. The most common reason, given by three-

quarters of women having abortions, is that having a

baby at that time in their lives would conflict with

major responsibilities such as work or school. Two-

thirds of women having abortions give economic rea-

sons for delaying or foregoing parenthood. Half of

the women choosing abortion do not have the sup-

portive relationship that they would like for becoming

a parent—either they do not want to start out as a sin-

gle mother or they are having problems in their rela-

tionship with a husband or partner. Approximately

14,000 women a year choose abortions to terminate

pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

1