2007 Abortion Surveillance Data Published - Surprise! It's Pretty Much What Everybody Expected!

By Rachel Walden — March 14, 2011

The CDC has released abortion surveillance data for 2007, and it should come as no real surprise that the overall rate (16.0 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years) was pretty much the same as what it has been for the preceding several years, during which abortion rates have been pretty steady: 16.4 in 2000, 16.2 in 2001, 2002, and 2003, 16.0 in 2004, 15.8 in 2005, and 16.2 in 2006.

Earlier this year, conservatives at RedState attempted to portray the lack of publication of this data in November of last year as a governmental attempt to hide something. In reality, November publication of the abortion surveillance data has been the regular practice just since 1999. I take a more detailed look at when each year’s data was released from 1977 to present here.

The 2007 data, however, are nothing earth-shattering, and nothing to hide. In addition to the pretty steady rate, the report includes the following abortion facts:

  • Most abortions are performed early: 62.3% of abortions were performed at ≤8 weeks’ gestation, 91.5% were performed at ≤13 weeks, 7.2% were performed at 14-20 weeks, and 1.3% were performed at ≥21 weeks. As we know, very late term abortions are not very common.
  • Of the abortions performed at ≤8 weeks and so eligible for non-surgical medication abortion, 20.3% used the medication method.
  • Almost 60% of women having abortions are already mothers, with 26.3% with one previous live birth and and 32.3% having had two or more previous live births.
  • 16.3% of women getting abortions are married.

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