The US saw 930,160 abortions in 2020, reversing a 30-year decline

[OfTheCross]

The US saw 930,160 abortions in 2020, reversing a 30-year decline - Poynter

Plus, half of Americans say the country is in a moral decline, day care and babysitting costs are rapidly rising, and more.

www.poynter.org

The Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights, just reported new figures showing abortion procedures rose from 862,320 in 2017 to 930,160 in 2020. The increase marks a reversal of a two-decade trend.


(Guttmacher Abortion Provider Census)
Guttmacher states:

According to new findings from Guttmacher’s latest Abortion Provider Census—the most comprehensive data collection effort on abortion provision in the United States—there were 8% more abortions in 2020 than in 2017.

That increase comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rule on a landmark abortion case that could restrict abortions in half of all states.

Guttmacher’s Abortion Provider Census finds:

• In 2020, there were 930,160 abortions in the United States, an 8% increase from 862,320 abortions in 2017.
• Similarly, the abortion rate increased from 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 in 2017 to 14.4 per 1,000 women, a 7% increase.
• In 2020, about one in five pregnancies ended in abortion. More specifically, the abortion ratio (the number of abortions per 100 pregnancies) increased from 18.4% in 2017 to 20.6% in 2020, a 12% increase.
• The increase in abortion was accompanied by a 6% decline in births between 2017 and 2020.
• Because there were many more births (3.6 million) than abortions (930,000) in 2020, these patterns mean that fewer people were getting pregnant and, among those who did, a larger proportion chose to have an abortion.
• The number of abortions increased in all four regions of the country between 2017 and 2020. The rise was largest in the West (12% increase) and Midwest (10% increase); abortions increased 8% in the South and 2% in the Northeast.

The institute drilled down on trends in individual states.

New York: Abortions increased 5% between 2017 and 2020, increasing between 2017 and 2019 then dropping 6% from 2019 to 2020. COVID-19 may have been a major cause for the drop since so many clinics were closed.

Illinois: Most of the state’s 25% increase from 2017 to 2020 happened between 2017 and 2019. More people came to Illinois from Missouri to get abortions. In 2018, Illinois began allowing Medicaid funds to pay for abortion care, which may have contributed to the increase.

Missouri: Abortions fell from 4,710 in 2017 to 170 in 2020 and Missourians increasingly went to Illinois to get the procedure.

Mississippi: Abortions increased 40% between 2017 and 2020 in this state that has one abortion clinic.

Maine: Abortion incidence increased 16% between 2017 and 2020. In January 2020, Maine required private insurance to pay for abortion care and allowed state Medicaid funds to pay for abortions.

Texas: Abortions increased 7% in Texas between 2017 and 2019, then dropped after the Texas governor said abortions were “nonessential” health care during the pandemic.

Florida: This state’s 9% increase from 2017 to 2020 included an increase in people from neighboring states that restricted abortions during this time frame.

You can get the raw data here, including state-by-state data.

The Guttmacher survey is based on responses from about half of the 1,687 facilities that provide abortions in the U.S., plus data from state health departments.

See coverage of this survey by The Associated Press, Reuters and The New York Times, and see other survey data about abortions and attitudes toward abortion laws from Pew Research.

 

[Payday23]

Disgusting but men don't want to truly fix the problem.

 

[OfTheCross]

Disgusting but men don't want to truly fix the problem.

What's the fix?

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Disgusting but men don't want to truly fix the problem.

What’s disgusting about not birthing a child you don’t want or can’t care for? It’s not like 2020 was a beacons of optimism, women couldn’t even have their partners or support people come to appointments or be in the labor room with them…who tf wants to give birth in those circumstances

 

[Payday23]

What’s disgusting about not birthing a child you don’t want or can’t care for? It’s not like 2020 was a beacons of optimism, women couldn’t even have their partners or support people come to appointments or be in the labor room with them…who tf wants to give birth in those circumstances

If men truly want to fix the problem they'd get vasectomies not prevent women from getting abortions. Actions have consequences. Both parties need to accept accountability. The easiest way to prevent abortions is men not being able to provided the sperm

 

[Payday23]

What's the fix?

Free vasectomies for men

 

[Rayg1919]

Honestly these states are passing laws they won't be able to enforce. This will not stop abortions.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Honestly these states are passing laws they won't be able to enforce. This will not stop abortions.

It will stop abortion for poor people, or endanger their lives, which is more than ok with America, the need to keep and grow the poverty class in the US is a strong one

 

[Pressure]

I fully support abortions.

 

[hashmander]

i support less unwanted children.

 

[OfTheCross]

It will stop abortion for poor people, or endanger their lives, which is more than ok with America, the need to keep and grow the poverty class in the US is a strong one

America has been looking for cheap labor since 1607 . They hit gold in 1619...

 

[DEAD7]

i support less unwanted children.

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

Considering the circumstances economically and health wise it’s not really a surprise.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

What’s disgusting about not birthing a child you don’t want or can’t care for? It’s not like 2020 was a beacons of optimism, women couldn’t even have their partners or support people come to appointments or be in the labor room with them…who tf wants to give birth in those circumstances

Not birthing a child you don't want or can't care for isn't disgusting at all, considering that's a completely passive statement that doesn't even describe an act, only describes the lack of one. But I'm pretty sure we're actually talking about poisoning or dismembering a developing human and then sucking it out of the womb with a vacuum.

At what exact age do you think killing the child cause you don't want it passes from "perfectly acceptable and not disgusting at all" to become "one of the worst things any human being could ever do"? Is it okay at 4 months but not at 6 months? Is it okay at 6 months if the baby is in but not if the baby is out? Cause morally it feels a lot more like a slippery slope than a dividing line. If you were pregnant, and someone purposely killed your daughter while she was in your womb without your approval, I'm pretty sure "murder" would feel like the appropriate word for you to describe what just happened.

It's okay to be in favor of legal abortions, and to defend the position. But if you're going to do so honestly, at least acknowledge that it's a pretty fukked-up procedure when you think about it and a society that is having a lot of abortions is likely doing a lot of other things wrong too. "Safe, legal, and rare" was a Democratic talking point until very very recently.

 

[dora_da_destroyer]

Not birthing a child you don't want or can't care for isn't disgusting at all, considering that's a completely passive statement that doesn't even describe an act, only describes the lack of one. But I'm pretty sure we're actually talking about poisoning or dismembering a developing human and then sucking it out of the womb with a vacuum.

At what exact age do you think killing the child cause you don't want it passes from "perfectly acceptable and not disgusting at all" to become "one of the worst things any human being could ever do"? Is it okay at 4 months but not at 6 months? Is it okay at 6 months if the baby is in but not if the baby is out? Cause morally it feels a lot more like a slippery slope than a dividing line. If you were pregnant, and someone purposely killed your daughter while she was in your womb without your approval, I'm pretty sure "murder" would feel like the appropriate word for you to describe what just happened.

It's okay to be in favor of legal abortions, and to defend the position. But if you're going to do so honestly, at least acknowledge that it's a pretty fukked-up procedure when you think about it and a society that is having a lot of abortions is likely doing a lot of other things wrong too. "Safe, legal, and rare" was a Democratic talking point until very very recently.

you're getting into a lot of points of subjectivity...many of which are framed by a religious view. i do think science provides a clear answer as to when it's murder and that's when it has built all the systems it needs to survive outside the womb (point of viability), which with the advances we've made in technology that's ~24 weeks and why most reasonable states have a 22 week cutoff.

but for me it is a cut and dry issue, you either believe a woman has the right to choose or she doesn't. you can feel free to judge the decision, think it's disgusting, disagree with it or call it whatever you want, but it's a yes or no on whether she has that choice. and i say this as someone who is personally against abortion - i haven't had one and have encouraged that option for my friends