U.S. Abortion Rates Drop Alongside Birthrates

Richard Flamm
The Paw Print

Abortion rates in the U.S. have dropped to the lowest level since 1973, according to a newly released study by Guttmacher Institute. Guttmacher, an organization committed to abortion rights, did not focus its  study on the reason, but offered speculation that advances in contraceptive technology such as the IUD as well as the wide reaching effects of the economic recession are likely factors.
Legislation has been passed in the past few years that has made it more difficult for low-income women to have access to abortions. The Guardian reports, “From 2011 to 2013, states enacted 205 abortion restrictions,” going on to say, “In Mississippi, Governor Phil Bryant said in January that his goal is ‘to end abortion’ in the state, which has just one abortion clinic, a facility that the government tried to close in 2012.”
These recent laws, while having a current and debated impact on women’s access to abortions, may not be a factor in the declining rates reported by the Guttmacher Institute, whose researchers noted that most of the laws did not come into effect until after 2011, when the study had already been  closed.
Religious groups and “Pro-Life” activists celebrate the lowered abortion rates, but Sally Kohn of the Daily Beast cautions that the conservative GOP policies are likely not the cause, but rather affordable access to the pill and open access to contraception.  She goes on to say, “In fact, foes of abortion have opposed most every single public policy that contributes to lowering the abortion rate in America.” Kohn cites the GOP’s anti-contraceptive history as being responsible for unwanted pregnancies that end in abortion.
The decline in abortions parallels with the U.S. decline in births overall. The Huffington Post reports the 9 percent decline in births between 2008 and 2011. Factors suspected are similar to the reasons posited for the lowered abortion rate – the recession making Americans less likely to conceive children, and the advent of longer-term contraceptive means such as IUDs.