US abortion rates reach all-time low, report says

Pregnancy rates have also declined in recent years, statisticians say

In 2010, the number of foetal losses and induced abortions were roughly the same, government data says. (Denis Closon/Rex Features)

US abortion rates have reached an all-time low, the latest US government data shows.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Friday published statistics showing that in 2010, elective abortion rates reached a record low of 17.9 per cent of pregnancy outcomes — nearly matching foetal losses at 17.1 per cent.

The 2010 data — the latest available — does not show the effects of restrictions on abortion introduced by state legislatures in recent years. In many states, those restrictions include 72-hour wait periods, mandatory ultrasounds and the dissemination of literature that abortion rights advocates charge is not scientifically sound.

“These declines that are documented here are showing predate the uptick the majority of the implementation of restrictions in states between 2011 and 2013,” Kathryn Kost, principle research scientist with reproductive health care analysis and advocacy group Guttmacher Institute and an author of the report, told The Independent.

Instead, Ms Kost attributes decrease in the number of abortions as of 2010 to a significant increase in the use of contraception and a decline in overall pregnancy rates.

“In 1976, when we started collecting these numbers, it was almost twice as likely to have an abortion than foetal loss,” the lead author of the report and a CDC health statistician, Sally C. Curtin, told The Independent.

The new data follows multiple studies showing that the overall number of pregnancies has dropped. There were 6.1 million total pregnancies in 2010, the lowest number in 24 years, according to Friday's report.

“The drop in birth rates from 2007 through 2013 has been well documented,” a CDC press release on the data said. “However, it is also important to examine total rates of pregnancy and other pregnancy outcomes (abortion and foetal loss) to provide a comprehensive picture of current reproductive trends.”

For the report, the CDC obtained the number of births from US hospitals. Guttmacher obtained the abortion statistics for the report from health care providers across the country. The number of foetal losses — miscarriages, still births and ectopic pregnancies — was calculated from birth and abortion statistics.