Abortion Rate Falls to Lowest Level Since 1973

By Kathy Schiffer

Pro-Life Protest in Detroit, Michigan

The number of abortions performed in America fell by 13 percent between 2008 and 2011, leaving the U.S. abortion rate at its lowest level since the passage of Roe v. Wade in 1973.

That is the very good news in a national survey of abortion providers conducted by the Guttmacher Institute.  The report, which will be released on Monday, February 3, claims an abortion rate of 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15-44 in 2011, well below the peak of 29.3 in 1981 and the lowest since a rate of 16.3 in 1973.

And that's not all--there's more good news for pro-lifers.  According to the Guttmacher Institute's website, there were more state abortion restrictions enacted in 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade.

Rachel Jones, lead author of the Guttmacher report, claimed that there is no apparent link to the reduced number of abortion practitioners.  Rather, Jones believes the decrease in abortions is the result of increased contraceptive use and lower rates of pregnancy.  

An early report on Yahoo! News quotes pro-life experts who believe the declining abortion rate is evidence of changing attitudes:

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, described the overall drop in abortion numbers as evidence that the anti-abortion movement's lobbying and legislative efforts were having an impact.

"It shows that women are rejecting the idea of abortion as the answer to an unexpected pregnancy," she said.

Americans United for Life, another anti-abortion group engaged in the efforts to pass restrictive state laws, said Guttmacher's numbers should be viewed skeptically because they are based on voluntary self-reporting by abortion providers. 

"It is impossible really to know the true abortion rate," said the group's president, Charmaine Yoest.

Read the rest here.