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ABORTION STATISTICS

The most recent January 2003 Gallup Poll reports that 23 % of the general population think abortion should be legal under any circumstances, 57 % in some circumstances, and 19 % illegal in all circumstances.

Abortions Annually & Trends
Number of Abortions from Rape and Incest
Deaths From Legal & Illegal Abortion
Partial Birth Abortion (Dilation & Extraction)
Miscellaneous Abortion Statistics

1. Abortions Annually & Trends
•The 6 million-plus pregnancies in 1996 in the U.S. resulted in 3.9 million births, 1.3 million induced abortions and almost a million fetal deaths. 62% of pregnancies ended in a live birth, 22 % in abortion and 16 % in a miscarriage or stillbirth. Trends in birth, abortion, and fetal loss have varied over the past 20 years, but since 1990 the rates for all three have declined: live births, down 8 %; induced abortions, down 16 %, and fetal losses, down 4 %. Source: National Center for Health Statistics
•Nearly half of unintended pregnancies and more than one-fifth of all pregnancies in the United States end in abortion
•From 1996 to 2000, the number of abortions fell by 3% to 1.31 million, and the abortion rate declined 5% to 21.3 per 1,000 women 15–44. (In comparison, the rate declined 12% between 1992 and 1996.)

TABLE 1. Number of reported abortions, abortion rate and abortion ratio, United States, 1973–2000

*Abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44.
†Abortions per 100 pregnancies ending in abortion or live birth; for each year.
Notes: Figures in parentheses are estimated by interpolation of numbers of abortions. Source: AGI.

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2. Number of Abortions from Rape and Incest
less than 1% of women who have abortions do so, because of rape or incest (AGI)

A. Rape
•A recent Justice Dept. report returned a result of 170,000 completed rapes plus 140,000 attempted rapes. Nat. Crime Victim Report, US Justice Dept. Aug. 95, R. Bachman
And how many pregnancies result?
•About 1 or 2 for each 1000. This translates into an overall total of 170 to 340 assault rape pregnancies a year in the entire United States.
•A study of 1,000 rape victims, who were treated medically right after the rape, reported no pregnancies. L. Kuchera, "Postcoital Contraception with Diethylstilbestrol," JAMA, October 25, 1971
•In another series of 117 assault rape victims, of whom only 17 were given hormone treatment after the attack, none became pregnant. Everett & Jimerson, "The Rape Victim," 237 OB & GYN, vol. 50, no. 1, July 1977, pp. 88-90
Only one or two out of 1000? Please explain.
There are about 100 million women in the United States old enough to be at risk for assault rape. Let’s use a figure of 200,000 forcible rapes every year. The studies available agree that there are no more than two pregnancies per 1,000 assault rapes.
So much for the numbers. Let’s look at it from another angle and see if that figure makes sense.
•Of these 200,000 women who were raped, one-third were either too old or too young to get pregnant. That leaves 133,000 at risk of pregnancy.
•A woman is capable of being fertilized only three days out of her 30-day month. So divide 133,000 by 10, and 13,300 women remain.
•One-fourth of all women in the United States of child-bearing age have been sterilized. That drops the figure to 10,000.
•Only half of the assailants penetrate her body and/or deposit sperm. Cut it in half again. We are own to 5,000.
•Fifteen percent of men are sterile; that drops the figure to 4,250. Fifteen percent of non-surgically sterilized women are naturally sterile. That reduces the number to 3,600.
•Another 15% are on the pill and/or are already pregnant. Now the figure is 3,070. Now factor in something that all adults know. It takes from five to ten months for an average couple to achieve a pregnancy. Using the smaller figure, to be conservative, divide the 3,000 figure by 5, and the number drops to about 600.

In a healthy, peaceful marriage, the miscarriage rate ranges up to about 15%. In this case, we have incredible emotional trauma. Her body is upset. Even if she conceives, the miscarriage rate is higher than in a more normal pregnancy. If she loses 20% of 600, there are 450 left. Finally, we must factor in one of the most important reasons why a rape victim rarely gets pregnant, and that is psychic trauma. Every woman is aware that stress and emotional factors can alter her menstrual cycle. To get pregnant and stay pregnant, a woman’s body must produce a very sophisticated mix of hormones. Hormone production is controlled by a part of the brain which is easily influenced by emotions. There’s no greater emotional trauma that can be experienced by a woman than an assault rape. This can radically upset her possibility of ovulation, fertilization, implantation and even nurturing of a pregnancy. So what further percentage reduction in pregnancy will this cause? No one really knows, but this factor certainly cuts the last figure by at least 50%, and probably more, leaving a final figure of 225 women pregnant each year, a number that closely matches the 200 found in clinical studies.

What percentage of rape pregnancies are aborted?
Less than half. The balance carry the baby to term. In one study of 37 rape pregnancies, 28 carried to term.
S. Makhorn, in Psychological Aspects of Abortion, Mall & Watts, Univ. Pub. 1979, Pg. 58.

B. Incest
In incest, is pregnancy common?
No. "Considering the prevalence of teenage pregnancies in general, incest treatment programs marvel at the low incidence of pregnancy from incest." Several reports agree at 1% or less.
G. Maloof, "The Consequences of Incest," The Psychological Aspects of Abortion, University Publications of Amer., 1979, p. 74 245

For more detailed info go to:
AbortionFacts.com

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3. Deaths From Legal & Illegal Abortion
•The statistics vary, but most claim that before the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, around 5,000 to 10,000 women died annually from complications arising from illegal abortions. These statistics, put out in the early 1970s by pro-choice proponents, have been shown to be completely false. A founding member of the National Abortion Rights Action League, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who now is pro-life, admits that he as well as others simply made up the numbers for effect, fully aware that they were a huge overestimate.
•The U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics reports that in 1972, the year before Roe v. Wade, there were only thirty-nine women who died from illegal abortions. By comparison, the National Center for Health Statistics reports that in 1971 there were fifty-four deaths from legal abortions.
•U.S. BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL
Reported Maternal Deaths from Abortion in U.S.

Taken from U.S. Senate graph

•During the debate on the floor of the U.S. Senate on the Hatch-Eagleton Pro-Life Amendment in 1983, the U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics provided the data on such deaths. Its reports showed that you must go back to the pre-Penicillin era to find more than 1,000 maternal deaths per year from illegal and legal abortions combined. The precipitous drop in maternal deaths in the 1950s and ‘60s occurred while abortions were still illegal. Before the first state legalized abortions in 1966, the total deaths were down to 120 per year. By 1972, before the Supreme Court legalized abortion in all 50 states, it was down to 39 per year in the entire U.S. Since legalization, the slow decline has continued, so that now the only difference is that more mothers are dying from legal, rather than illegal abortions.
•more stats - AbortionFacts.com

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4. Partial Birth Abortion (Dilation & Extraction)
stats vary because of inaccurate reporting by doctors

•Dilation and extraction abortions- an estimated total of 31 providers performed the procedure 2,200 times in 2000, and 0.17% of all abortions performed in that year used this method. Counts of abortions are based on the Guttmacher Institute's survey of abortionists. Guttmacher is a strongly pro-abortion organization.
•In another survey, Guttmacher found only 8 abortionists who admitted using this method, for a total of 363 abortions in 1996 and 201 in the first half of 1997. As their surveys do not include all abortionists in the country, they estimate from this that a total of about 14 abortionists committed about 640 D&X's in 1996. On the other hand, an abortionist in California has admitted that he did 65 third-trimester abortions per year, and most of these appeared to be D&X's. The inventor of D&X says that he himself has committed 1000 of them. And a reporter for The Record in Hackensack, NJ, found one clinic there that performed 1,500 D&X's in one year. There may be quibbles over the exact definition of what a D&X is, or perhaps abortionists are understating the numbers to avoid bad publicity -When this type of procedure first became public knowledge, those defending it said it was only done a few hundred times a year. Then Ron Fitzsimmons, the executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers admitted on ABC’s “Nightline” (11/95) that he had lied when he asserted the procedure was used rarely and only on women whose lives were in danger. The reality is, this gruesome method of killing partially born babies is done many thousands of times a year. Abortionist, Dr. McMahon, admitted in 1995 to performing over 2000 partial birth abortions.

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5. Miscellaneous Abortion Statistics

•There are 52% intended pregnancies and 48% unintended ones annually, therefore makeing 6.3 million pregnancies annually in 1998
•of these unintended pregnancies the results were 13% miscarriage, 40% birth, 47%aborted.
•in 2000, there were 1.3 million abortions, 2.1% of women from ages 15-44 have had one, making abortion one of the most common med procedures in the US

A. US vs. Other Countries

•The U.S. abortion rate has been distinctly higher than the rate in other industrialized countries. The U.S. rate (21.3 per 1,000 women 15–44) is still higher than those in many western European countries.

B. Reasons For Abortion (1988)

C. Demographics Of Those Who Abort

D. Stage Of Pregnancy When Abortion Takes Place

E. Deaths From Abortion (1990)

Before 9 weeks	9-10 Weeks	13-15 weeks	After 20 weeks
1 in 500,000	1 in 300,000	1 in 60,000	1 in 8,000

Source: AGI.

F. Adoption
500,000 people are waiting to adopt children each year in the United States. Additionally there are waiting lists to adopt all races, disabled children, and children with Down´s Syndrom. Source: The National Adoption Clearinghouse

For more detailed statistics go to:
AbortionFacts.com
The Alan Guttmacher Institute

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