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  • Title: Trends in abortions, 1982-1984.
    Author: Henshaw SK.
    Journal: Fam Plann Perspect; 1986; 18(1):34. PubMed ID: 3803547.
    Abstract:
    Reports from state health departments indicate that the number of legal abortions performed in the US declined by more than 4% between 1982 and 1984. Almost all of the drop occurred between 1982 and 1983. The total number of abortions is estimated to have dropped from 1,574,000 in 1982 to 1,515,000 in 1983 and to 1,508,000 in 1984. Because the number of women aged 15-44 increased slightly in 1983 and in 1984, the abortion rate showed a greater relative decrease than did the number of abortions. Most of the increase in the number of childbearing age occurred among women aged 30-44, who have relatively few abortions. Although the total number of women increased, the number of abortions expected on the basis of past age-specific abortion rates actually decreased slightly. Since there has been no increase in the number of births to correspond to the decrease in abortion, the decline in the abortion rate reflects a decrease in the pregnancy rate. About 29% of pregnancies are terminated by abortion. About 4% of these are spontaneous fetal losses. The last complete count of the number of US abortions was made by the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) in 1982. Evidence that the number of abortions declined in 1983 is that 28 states reported declines, whereas only 9 reported increases. The 1984 estimate presented in this article may be slightly less accurate than that for 1983, since it was based on only 31 states. More accurate data on 1984 abortions will be available from the next AGI survey of abortion providers, planned for the spring of 1986.
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