CDC: Ohioans having fewer abortions - and later in life

Ohio’s abortions have been cut by nearly half since 1999, with the sharpest decline among teenagers, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Abortion Surveillance reports.

Ohio’s 20,102 abortions in 2019 marked a 30% decrease from 2009 and a 45.7% decrease since 1999, the latest data shows. Abortions totaled 37,041 in 1999.

Here’s a look at other numbers from the CDC reports, using 1999, 2009, and 2019 as benchmarks.

In addition to fewer abortions, there has been a swing toward a larger share of the abortions taking place later in life.

In 1999, nearly 26% of abortions happened by age 19. In 2019, that share dropped to about 9%.This was a drop from 7,276 abortions in this age group in 1999 to 1,800 abortions in 2019.

The latest data shows that nearly 60% of abortions involved patients in their 20s. This is a big shift from 1999 when only 43% of abortions happened with patients in their 20s.

As modern-day abor- tions are happening later in a patient’s life, a greater share of patients are receiving an abortion for the first time.

In 2019, 59.7% of patients had an abortion for the first time for a total of 11,689. This is up from 1999, when 48.4% had an abortion for the first time for a total of 15,336. Additionally, 1999 had a greater percentage of previous abortions for 1, 2, or 3 and more than those today.

Some statistics have remained steady through

the decades. The rate of married patients stayed around 15% each decade, dipping to 13.7% in 2009.

Additionally, the breakdown of patients who had previous children before their abortion has stayed consist e nt through the

The latest data shows that nearly 60% of abortions involved patients in their 20s. This is a big shift from 1999 when only 43% of abortions happened with patients in their 20s.

decades. In 2019, the breakdown was 36% (7,074) did not have any previous children, 25% (4,963) had one child, 21% (4,176) had two children, 10% (2,049) had three, and 7% (1,360) had four or more.

The CDC has also begun collecting two new factors between the 2009 and the 2019 reports.

The first is the weeks of gestation that passed before the abortion.

In Ohio, only 27.5% of a bortions in 2019 h ap- pened before the six-week mark, which is when the ban on abortions under a law Gov. Mike DeWine signed would likely take effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. The largest share of abortions in 2019

happened just after that point, from weeks seven to nine, at 45.1%.

The second is the method type a patient chooses to perform an abortion, surgical or by medication.

In 2019, 51.5% of all abor-

tions were done surgically before or at 13 weeks gestation. This compares with 38.4% for medication abor- tions before or at nine weeks gestation.

Medication abortions face limitations by another bill signed by DeWine to prevent medication abortions via telemedicine.

Law changes

There have been a number of new laws to restrict abortions in Ohio over the last few decades.

By 1999, Ohio had laws requiring parental consent for minors and a 24-hour waiting period after a consultation as part of their abor- tion policy, signed in 1986 and 1992.

In 1995, Ohio became the first state to ban the dila- tion and extraction abortion method, which later became a federal ban in 2003, mak- ing it illegal in all 50 states. Finally, limits were imposed to prevent state employee health plans from covering abortions unless in cases of life endangerment, rape, or incest.

In the analyzed period, more restrictions were added. In 2002, Ohio abortion clinics had to begin obtaining ambulatory surgical facility licenses, which some activists believe led to the closure of numerous clinics, limiting access and requiring many to travel long distances to receive an abortion.

Currently, there are nine abortion clinics left in the state.

In 2006, state or local funding was prohibited from being used for an abortion.

In 2011, the ban on abortions after 20 weeks if the fetus is determined viable took effect. In 2019, only 95 abortions took place after the 20th week of gestation.

In 2017, physicians could face criminal punishment if they knowingly abort a fetus that the patient knows has down-syndrome and cites it as a reason for the abortion.

Several bills have also steadily stripped Planned Parenthood of funding throughout the years.

The CDC defines legal abortions as an intervention performed by a licensed clinician “within the limits of state regulations, that is intended to terminate a suspected or known ongoing intrauterine pregnancy

and that does not result in a live birth.”

States are not required to report data, and all information is given voluntarily.