Abortion Statistics in America

Abortion has been one of the most debated issues in the American society over the last few decades. The entire nation seems to be divided over this issue - with one group supporting it and other fiercely opposing it. In medicine, abortion refers to "any pregnancy which doesn't end with a live birth." Going by that though, even miscarriage tends to qualify as abortion. In informal language, however, the term abortion is more often used to refer to the practice of 'induced abortion', at any point of time during the pregnancy. Coincidentally, even judiciary takes induced abortion into consideration when it refers to abortion.

Abortion Statistics in the United States

In the United States, the Center For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - a federal agency in the Department of Health and Human Services, collects and compiles the statistical data on abortion. Owing to the fact that reporting of abortion cases is not mandatory in the United States a large number of abortions go unreported, which, in turn, makes it difficult to compile accurate data about the same. Going through the statistics on abortion given below will you get a clear picture about its prevalence in the country.

• The law which legalizes abortion during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy came into existence as a result of the Roe vs Wade case decision on 22nd January, 1973.
• In 1973, after the restrictions on abortion in third semester came into existence around 615,831 cases of abortion were reported. In 2005, the number reached 820,151 (after reaching its peak of 1,429,279 cases in 1990).
• Abortion statistics compiled in 2009 reveal that more than 45 million abortions have been carried out in the United States since 1973. Now that is a number which continues to soar, and going by the current trends, the 2010 data is going to put forth a much more grievous picture.
• As we mentioned earlier, every year around 1.4 million abortions are carried out in the United States. That amounts to more than 3000 abortions every single day, and one abortion every 20-23 seconds.
• Around 40 percent of the total unintended pregnancies in the country are terminated by induced abortion. If overall pregnancies in the nation are taken into consideration around 22 percent end with induced abortion.
• If the statistical data by age groups is taken into consideration, women in their 20s top the group with 58 percent of the total cases of induced abortion, followed by women in their 30s with 22 percent cases and women below 20 accounting for 18 percent of the total cases.
• Of the overall cases of abortion, girls belonging to the age group of 17-19 constitute for 11 percent of the cases, those in the age group of 15-18 constitute for 6 percent and those who are 14 and below constitute 0.4 percent of the total cases.
• Approximately, 61 percent of women who opt for abortion in the United States are those who already have one or more children.

Among the various reasons cited for abortion the two most widely cited reasons are - desire to postpone childbearing and inability to take care of the baby. Other common reasons include, facing problems in relationship, being too young to carry a baby or the fact that having a baby would disrupt the professional life.

While that was about the United States, the condition is no less severe in other parts of the world. Statistical estimates suggest that approximately 46 million abortions are carried out in the world every single year, of which around 26 million are attributed to nations which have legalized abortions while the rest are attributed to those nations wherein abortion is considered illegal. Around 78 percent of these abortions are carried out in developing nations and the rest 22 percent are carried out in developed nations. As a large number of abortions which are carried out in poor nations go unrecorded, the actual seriousness of this issue is always kept under wraps.