A study run by The Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit sexual health organization supporting legal access to abortion reveals that the abortion rate in the United States dropped to its lowest since 1973.
The rate declined to 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 in 2011, the latest year studied, being well below the 1981 peak of 29.3 per 1,000. It is also the lowest since 1973 when the rate was 16.3 per 1,000.
The study also found that along with the decline in abortions, the overall pregnancy and birth rates have also dropped down, partly due to the recent recession. Apart form that, contraceptive use and methods improved during the period too.
The researchers also established that the total number of abortion providers declined by only 4 percent between 2008 and 2011, whereas the number of clinics providing abortion services is down by just 1 percent.
“With abortion rates falling in almost all states, our study did not find evidence that the national decline in abortions during this period was the result of new state abortion restrictions. We also found no evidence that the decline was linked to a drop in the number of abortion providers during this period,” says Rachel Jones, lead author of the study.
The study reads however, that while the overall abortion rates declined, early medication abortions are on the rise, with an estimated 239,400 early medication procedures performed in 2011, an increase from 17 percent in 2008.