Abortion Rate Down Overall, Up Among Poor Women

[TheNewMe]

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealt...d=13665925

ABC News

Quote:The abortion rate in the United States dropped 8 percent between 2000 and 2008, while rising nearly 18 percent among the country's poorest women -- a trend that researchers believe might reflect tough economic times. Of the more than 1.2 million legal abortions reported in 2008, women whose family income fell below the national poverty level accounted for 42 percent of them.
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"Increasingly, we're seeing restrictions placed on abortion services, and this shows that it's going to have a disproportionate impact on poor women," [Rachel] Jones [senior research associate at New York City's Guttmacher Institute] said.
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The abortion rate has been steadily declining since 1990 -- a possible product of more and better contraceptive use as well as fewer teens having sex, Jones said. But the decline seems to have stabilized. If the 2008 rates persist, it's estimated that almost one in three women in the U.S. will have had an abortion before the age of 45.
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"All types of women have abortions. People don't realize that their friends, their family members have had this experience," Jones said. "If people realize that a substantial minority of women will have one, maybe they will have a less harsh evaluation of abortion and the circumstances surrounding it."