Newsweek: Better Prevention or Changing Attitudes?
Abortion rates have hit a 34-year low, but experts disagree on the reasons why.
If you don't know what to make of the news that abortion rates are dropping, don't feel bad: neither the pro-choice nor the pro-life lobby knows quite what to make of it either. On Thursday morning the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health research organization, will release a report showing that in 2005 the abortion rate dipped to 19.4 per 1,000 women, its lowest level since 1974. The announcement continues a well-established trend: the rate of abortions performed in the United States has been dropping steadily since 1981.
But the report, based on the most recent available data, is far more complicated than the basic statistics suggest. Yes, abortions are down, but it's unclear why. Is it because of increased access to birth control? Decreased access to abortion clinics? Increased availability of new medications that end pregnancy? Or are more women simply choosing to continue their pregnancies? ...
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