The U.S. abortion rate has reached its lowest level in three decades, according to a new report released today.
According to the Guttmacher Institute's press release:
In 2005, the U.S. abortion rate declined to 19.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44, continuing the downward trend that started after the abortion rate peaked at 29.3 in 1981 ... The abortion rate is now at its lowest level since 1974.Rates are not the same as real numbers, but even the numbers decreased:
The number of abortions declined as well, to a total of 1.2 million in 2005, 25% below the all-time high of 1.6 million abortions in 1990.The report was simply a "descriptive" study of abortions in the United States; there wasn't any speculation about the dynamics underlying the study's findings.
"We don't know why," said study author Rachel Jones, senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that focuses on reproductive issues.Planned Parenthood -- plausibly in our opinion -- suggests that the conscientious use of contraceptives figured largely in these encouraging developments:
This study shows that prevention works ... the best way to continue the downward trend is with policies that expand access to health care and real information.The pro-abstinence forces will soon chime in with their own explanation. While we doubt that abstinence affected these developments, we wouldn't be surprised if changing attitudes about abortion improved the level of contraceptive use.
We hope this study -- and others like it -- will convince more Americans, from both sides of the abortion debate, to support contraception as the best answer -- to abortion, and to the divisive debate surrounding it.
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