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By National Right to Life Committee, 2010
Source: National Right to Life Factsheet, January 2010
TOTAL ABORTIONS SINCE 1973:
52,008,665 |
Downward Trend After reaching a high of over 1.6 million in 1990, the number of abortions annually performed in the U.S. has dropped back to levels not seen since the late 1970s. Two independent sources confirm this decline: the government’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute (GI), which was once a special research affiliate of abortion chain Planned Parenthood. The CDC ordinarily develops its annual report on the basis of data received from 52 health agencies (50 states plus New York City and District of Columbia). GI gets its numbers from direct surveys of abortionists. Because of these different methods of data collection, GI has consistently obtained higher counts than the CDC. CDC researchers have admitted it probably undercounts the total number of abortions because reporting laws vary from state to state and some abortionists probably do not report or under-report the abortions they perform. Nevertheless, because increases and decreases in CDC and GI numbers have until recently roughly tracked each other, both sources are thought to provide useful information on abortion trends and statistics. The CDC stopped reporting estimates for some states in 1998, making the discrepancy larger. Abortions from CA and NH have not been counted by the CDC since 1998, and other numbers have been missing from the totals during that time frame: OK in 1998, AK from 1998 to 2002, WV in 2003 and 2004, LA IN 2005-6. For areas that did report, additional declines were seen in every year except 2002 and 2006, when small increases were reported. GI’s latest survey confirms a long term downward trend, showing just over 1.2 million abortions nationwide for 2005, a drop of 8% from its last full comprehensive survey in 2000. This is the lowest number reported by Guttmacher since 1976. Using AGI figures through 2005, estimating 1,206,200 abortions for 2006-09, and factoring in the possible 3 percent undercount GI estimates for its own figures, the total number of abortions performed in the U.S. since 1973 equals 52,008,665.
Reported Annual Abortions - 1973-2006
| YEAR | GI | CDC | | 1973 | 744,600 | 615,831 | | 1974 | 898,600 | 763,476 | | 1975 | 1,034,200 | 854,853 | | 1976 | 1,179,300 | 988,267 | | 1977 | 1,316,700 | 1,079,430 | | 1978 | 1,409,600 | 1,157,776 | | 1979 | 1,497,700 | 1,251,921 | | 1980 | 1,553,900 | 1,297,606 | | 1981 | 1,577,300 | 1,300,760 | | 1982 | 1,573,900 | 1,303,980 | | 1983 | 1,575,000 | 1,268,987 | | 1984 | 1,577,200 | 1,333,521 | | 1985 | 1,588,200 | 1,328,570 | | 1986 | 1,574,000 | 1,328,112 | | 1987 | 1,559,100 | 1,353,671 | | 1988 | 1,590,800 | 1,371,285 | | 1989 | 1,566,900 | 1,396,658 | | 1990 | 1,608,600 | 1,429,577 | | 1991 | 1,556,500 | 1,388,937 | | 1992 | 1,528,900 | 1,359146 | | 1993 | 1,495,000 | 1,330,414 | | 1994 | 1,423,000 | 1,267,415 | | 1995 | 1,359,400 | 1,210,883 | | 1996 | 1,360,160 | 1,225,937 | | 1997 | 1,335,000 | 1,186,039 | | 1998 | 1,319,000 | 884,273 * | | 1999 | 1,314,800 | 861,789 * | | 2000 | 1,312,990 | 857,475 * | | 2001 | 1,291,000 | 853,485 * | | 2002 | 1,269,000 | 854,122 * | | 2003 | 1,250,000 | 848,163 * | | 2004 | 1,222,100 | 839,226 * | | 2005 | 1,206,200 | 820,151 * | | 2006-08 | 1,206,200 ** | 846,181 * | | 2006-08 | 1,206,200 ** | |
* Excludes NH, CA, and at least one other state
** NRLC base figure Updated: January 2010
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