Abortion laws are constantly changing across the country, but even so, many women choose to terminate their pregnancies. Read on to learn more abortion statistics, with insights on the reasons why women choose to have them. Even though about one-fourth of women will have an abortion before age 45, the rate has been decreasing since abortion became legal in To compare, the Guttmacher Institute reported One potential reason is better education about sex and reproductive health ; another may be an increase in abortion bans.
Here are some more abortion statistics from the Guttmacher Institute regarding age, race, and other demographics. Women who want an abortion could choose between clinics in Here are some possible scenarios:. Of course, every situation is unique. Only the pregnant woman and her doctor can gauge whether an abortion is the right choice.
Did you know that a majority of women who have abortions are moms? Their reasons for terminating a pregnancy are complex, from the state of their relationship, to personal finances, to reluctance to add another child to their family. For them, abortion is the choice that makes the best, or only, sense.
Still, the subject of moms having abortions remains taboo. Some of the women we spoke with already had children when they had an abortion. Others had an abortion at a younger age, knowing that someday, when they were more settled in their lives, they would want children. Whatever their circumstances, one thing is certain: these women represent millions of others like them. It was the summer of The twins, Naomi and Saul, had just been weaned , and Hannah and Patrick were exhausted from juggling demanding jobs and child care for four kids.
Seventy-three percent of women reported that they could not afford a baby at the time. Nearly half cited relationship difficulties or wanting to avoid single motherhood.
More than a third of women felt their families were complete. Twelve percent chose abortion due to their own health problems. For example, one of my patients and her husband were thrilled to find out she was pregnant for the first time. Then she received the diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer.
She had to choose between lifesaving chemotherapy and radiation or her pregnancy. Nine in 10 women who receive abortions undergo abortion in the first trimester. Only 1. When performed legally by skilled practitioners, abortion is a safe medical procedure with a low complication rate. The risk of major complications — such as hospitalization, infection, blood transfusion or surgery — in first-trimester procedures is less than 0.
The risk of dying in childbirth is 14 times higher than the risk of dying from safe abortion. Studies show that abortion is not linked to long-term health complications, including breast cancer, infertility, miscarriage or psychiatric disorders.
Of women who had an abortion at 16 or more weeks' gestation, 71 percent attributed their delay to not having realized they were pregnant or not having known soon enough the actual gestation of their pregnancy. Almost half were delayed because of trouble in arranging the abortion, usually because they needed time to raise money. Financial pressures Georgette Forney, who had an abortion when she was 16 and is now an anti-abortion campaigner leading Anglicans for Life, says she often sees economic pressures triggering abortions, even in middle-class families.
It was a five-year process to recover. Forney said she also encountered a single mother who was worried she might lose custody of her daughter in light of a suit by the biological father. The woman then became pregnant, Forney said, and had an abortion in violation of her own beliefs because she feared having a second child would jeopardize prospects for keeping her daughter.
A hospital ultrasound technician from Pleasant Prairie, Wis. Having been through three difficult pregnancies previously, and coping with a mentally disabled eldest son, she felt abortion was the prudent choice. The Journal of Family Issues published a report earlier this month asserting that women often choose abortion because of their wish to be good parents.
That means women who have no children want the conditions to be right when they do, and women who already are mothers want to care responsibly for their existing children, said the lead author, Rachel Jones, a researcher with the Guttmacher Institute.
Federal statistics do not include California, the most populous state, because its government does not provide data. But Guttmacher researchers surveyed abortion providers there as well as in other states to produce the latest national estimate of 1. Though abortion is commonplace across the country, urban areas have far higher rates than rural areas where access to abortion providers can be difficult.
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