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Study finds abortion rates dropping nationwide
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - US abortion rates are falling across the country, according to a new study.
Figures from the Guttmacher Institute show that the number of abortions has been dropping steadily since the practice peaked in 1990, with the group having recorded 1.6 million that year, over 1 million in 2011, 926,000 in 2014, and just 862,000 in 2017.
Factors leading to a decrease in abortions included fewer facilities providing abortions, an increase in the availability of contraceptives, a declining birth rate, and laws enacted in recent years restricting the availability of the practice.
The report notes that during the years in which the abortion rate dropped, the birth rate also fell, while 400 pro-life bills were passed between 2011 and 2017 when abortions plummeted to their lowest level since Roe v. Wade in 1973.
The closure of 31 abortion clinics nationwide between 2011 and 2017 was cited as another potential cause of the change, in spite of 57% of the national decline occurring in states where no new laws had been passed to prevent abortion, to which the report attributed more contraceptive use and a falling birth rate.