Interesting find. Is Abortion Rare? from NYT

[Tennessee Gal]

~snip~

Here are the facts. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 1.21 million abortions were performed in the United States in 2008, down from 1.31 million in 2000. Twenty-five percent of these were medical abortions induced by mifepristone in the first nine weeks, as opposed to surgical abortions. Guttmacher also estimates that, at current rates, three in 10 women will have an abortion by age 45, a number that many readers quoted in the comments section of this blog.

~snip~

But the statistic that caught my eye, and led me to call abortion “rare” was this: In a given year, 2 percent of American women between the ages of 15 and 44 have an abortion. That means 98 percent of them do not.

~snip~

If the right-wing manages to outlaw abortion, the abortion rate will not go down. It was about the same before the 1973 Roe v Wade decision, which recognized a woman’s right to privacy, as it was in 2008. (Approximations of illegal abortions in the 1960s range from 200,000 to 1.2 million a year, and the total population was under 200 million until the end of that decade. If the truth lies closer to the larger number, the rate was actually higher than post-Roe.) But abortions will become more dangerous. According to some estimates, fifty percent of the maternal deaths in the first half of the 20th century were due to illegal abortions. Was that a culture of life?

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/is-abortion-rare/

[hedgehog]

1. Here's what I consider the more significant number:

ABORTION HAS BECOME MORE CONCENTRATED AMONG POOR WOMEN

Rising Poverty, Economic Recession May Be Factors

The proportion of abortion patients who were poor increased by almost 60%—from 27% in 2000 to 42% in 2008, according to “Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients, 2008,” by Rachel K. Jones, Lawrence B. Finer and Susheela Singh of the Guttmacher Institute. This shift is the most striking change in the profile of women obtaining abortions.

The growing concentration of abortion among women with incomes below the federal poverty line likely reflects a combination of factors. Between 2000 and 2008, the proportion of women in the overall population who were poor increased by 25%. And a Guttmacher study published in the Fall of 2009 showed that the deep economic recession may also have played a role, as financial concerns led more women to want to delay childbearing or limit the number of children they have. Meanwhile, abortion service providers and nonprofit abortion funds across the country have sought to meet the growing need among poor and low-income women by providing services on sliding fee scales and by subsidizing abortion services through charitable donations, which may have allowed some poor women to access services they might not have otherwise been able to afford.

“Gaps in unintended pregnancy and abortion between poor and more affluent women have been increasing since the mid-1990s, so—sadly—none of this comes as a surprise,” says Sharon L. Camp, president and CEO of the Guttmacher Institute. “Reproductive health disparities, and health disparities more generally, are endemic in this country and stem from broader, persistent economic and social inequities. We need to bridge these reproductive health gaps by ensuring that all women, regardless of their economic circumstances, have meaningful access to the full spectrum of information and services—both contraceptive services to reduce levels of unintended pregnancy and abortion services.”

http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2010/05/04/index.html

So the Nuns on the Bus and Planned Parenthood have done more to limit the number of abortions than any number of silk clad bishops!

[Tennessee Gal]

3. Yes, and thank your for the post. nt

[baldguy]

2. If abortion is outlawed it won't go away. It will become more dangerous, though.

I think that's the objective.

[Brickbat]

7. For some. The rich are always able to get safe abortions, legal or no.

They know the doctors who can provide a theraputic D&C in a clinical environment -- doctors who won't demand payment in the form of a blowjob, who won't skimp on the antibiotics, and who clean their instruments between procedures.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Here's the underlying policy behind re-criminalizing abortion.

1. Women will still seek abortions.

2. Women without money will seek abortions that will be performed by people without the skills and/or the facilities to make it a safe procedure.

3. Women who undergo abortion by unqualified practitioners will either die or be severely butchered or rendered severely ill due to the procedure.

4. Even if they manage to survive a "bad" abortion, women will be subject to prosecution, fines, and/or prison. They always risk someone going to the D.A. or the police.

[Warpy]

5. Culture of life? Silly, women aren't alive

Women are walking flowerpots into which a male plants his seed. They're not really human beings, you know, with their own rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This is what we're up against.

They don't care if we die, we're not really alive.

[hedgehog]

6. Your statement sounds like it is over the top, but I believe it represents

the view of the ancient Greeks and the Medieval "scientists" who studied them. I also believe that when you get down to it, a lot of the teachings that the bishops cling to were based on the finest understanding of human reproduction in 1250. That's what they were taught in seminary, and they haven't learned a thing since.

[Warpy]

9. I'm well aware of the Aristotelian "homunculus" view of reproduction

and yes, that's what I based it on and yes, that is exactly what they are taught in seminary. It's as thought the last 3000 years of scientific exploration have never happened.

What kills me is how many men out there are ready to buy it, too, since they might love to use women but they hate women.

By the way, the early churchmen decided we did have rudimentary souls, but that was only so we could be sent to hell.

[Voice for Peace]

8. really interesting, thanks!!

shared on FB