U.S. abortions dropped to their lowest rate since 1973's Roe v. Wade. Thanks, ObamaCare?

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last updated 18 September 2019

The number and rate of abortions fell to their lowest levels since abortion became legal nationwide with 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling, the Guttmacher Institute reported Wednesday. The research group, which supports abortion rights, said it counted 863,000 abortions carried out in the U.S. in 2017, down from 926,000 in 2014 and just over 1 million in 2011. The Guttmacher Institute is the most reliable count of U.S. abortions, because unlike the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it aims to tally all pregnancies terminated in the country.

Abortions fell in all areas of the country, with 57 percent of the drop in the 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, that did not enact any abortion restrictions, the Guttmacher Institute found. The 400 state laws restricting abortion were not a big factor in the decline, but the drop in pregnancies appeared to be significant. The birth rate also declined during the period studied, and a likely factor in both drops, the report said, is the increased accessibility of contraception since the Affordable Care Act required most private health insurance plans to offer no-cost birth control in 2011.

"If your priority is to reduce abortions, one of the best things you can do is make sure that women have access to high-quality, affordable, and effective methods of birth control," Alina Salganicoff, director of women's health policy for the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, tells The Associated Press. The Guttmacher Institute report's data did not cover the flurry of expansive new abortion restrictions passed in Republican states since 2017, AP notes, nor the reduced access to contraction stemming from the Trump administration's changes to the federal Title X family planning program.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.