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CDC reports decline in U.S. abortions

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ATLANTA (BP) — Abortions are on the decline in the United States, though numbers remain shockingly high in New York City, according to a CDC report released over Thanksgiving.

The study used voluntary data from 44 states, New York City and the District of Columbia.

From 2001 to 2010, the number of reported legal abortions in the United States fell by 9 percent. The number of teenagers getting abortions dropped most significantly, probably due in part to the overall drop in teenage pregnancies. For that 10-year period, the abortion rate among teenagers fell about 30 percent. The six states not included in the study had not provided data for each of the 10 years.

The number of abortions in New York City alone remains incredibly high: 83,750 in 2010. That amounts to 694 abortions for every 1,000 live births. No other jurisdiction approaches that high an abortion ratio. Other city health reports have shown that nearly 40 percent of pregnancies in New York end in abortion.

Also from the CDC’s New York numbers: 82 percent of abortions in the city were performed on African American or Hispanic women.

The CDC authors noted that the numbers, because they are voluntary, significantly underreport abortions compared to the more fully researched Guttmacher Institute studies. For 2008, the CDC reported 825,564 abortions while Guttmacher reported 1.21 million abortions.

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The CDC released another report Dec. 6 compiled from its own data as well as outside sources like Guttmacher that shows, since 1990, the abortion rate has fallen 32 percent.
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Emily Belz is a writer for WORLD Magazine. This article is used by permission from WORLD News Service.