U.S. SEES INCREASE IN ABORTIONS
The number of abortions in the United States rose in 2020, ending a 30-year decline, according to a new report from a research and advocacy group that favors abortion rights.
The Guttmacher Institute, which surveys abortion providers every three years, said the number of abortions increased 8 percent in 2020 from 2017, to an estimated total of 930,160. It concluded that about 1 in 5 pregnancies ended in abortion in 2020.
The report was released as a deeply divided public awaits a ruling from the Supreme Court that could overturn the 49-year-old constitutional right to abortion established by its decision in Roe v. Wade. A leaked draft of the impending ruling appeared to show that a majority of the nine justices favor upending Roe.
A number of states have passed, or are considering, highly restrictive abortion laws in anticipation of the Supreme Court ruling, which could come as soon as this month.
The Guttmacher Institute’s survey data is not comprehensive, but its conclusion is similar to one from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which reported in November that abortions ticked up by 2 percent in 2019 over 2018, to a total of 625,346.
The agency’s numbers are lower than Guttmacher’s partly because they do not include data from California, New Hampshire and Maryland.
The CDC identified the end of a seven-year decline in abortions a year earlier, in 2018, when the number of abortions rose by about 5,700 over 2017.
The Guttmacher report said its new data highlights “that the need for abortion care in the United States is growing just as the U.S. Supreme Court appears likely to overturn or gut Roe v. Wade.”
“An increase in abortion numbers is a positive development if it means people are getting the health care they want and need,” the online report stated. “Rather than focusing on reducing abortion, policies should instead center the needs of people and protect their right to bodily autonomy.”
The organization said the abortion rate for women ages 15 to 44 increased from 13.5 per 1,000 in 2017, to 14.4 per 1,000 in 2020, a 7 percent increase.