The decades-long decline in the U.S. abortion rate slowed yet again in 2003, adding to mounting evidence that the nation is failing to help women prevent unintended pregnancies and reduce the need for abortion, according to a new analysis by the Guttmacher Institute. The Institute estimates that in 2003 there were 20.8 abortions for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44. Between 2000 and 2003, the abortion rate declined by an average of only 0.8% per year; the 0.6% decline in 2002–2003 was the smallest in those three years. By comparison, the abortion rate declined by 3.4% per year in the early and mid-1990s.
“The new data confirm that the decline in the U.S. abortion rate has stopped almost completely,” says Dr. Sharon L. Camp, Guttmacher president and CEO. “This troubling development is no surprise, given that unintended pregnancy rates have come to a near-standstill as well, and have actually worsened dramatically for low-income women.”
Guttmacher Institute researchers reported in May that while the overall rate of unintended pregnancy in the U.S. remained unchanged between 1994 and 2001, rates increased by 29% among poor women, even as the rate declined by 20% for more affluent women.
“These trends are alarming, and should be a wake-up call to policymakers at the federal and state levels to do more to help women, especially those at greatest risk, avoid unwanted pregnancies,” argues Dr. Camp. “There is an urgent need to strengthen evidence-based policies that have been proven to reduce unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion. These include improving public funding for contraceptive services for poor women at the state and federal levels by expanding Medicaid eligibility and Title X funding, and ensuring that the Food and Drug Administration acts on its own experts’ advice to grant over-the-counter status for the emergency contraceptive Plan B without further delay.”
Isn't it interesting how the abortion rate declined markedly during the Clinton years, but the rate has stalled almost completely during the Bush Administration?
A huge contributing factor is that low-income women are attempting to be more responsible about preventing unwanted pregnancy, but the resources just aren't there to help them:
Of the 66.3 million U.S. women of reproductive age, 34.4 million were in need of contraceptive services and supplies in 2004, because they were sexually active and able to become pregnant, but did not wish to become pregnant. In turn, about half of these women–17.4 million–were in need of publicly funded contraceptive services and supplies, an increase of one million women since 2000, according to new Guttmacher Institute data analyzed with support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Nationwide, the number of women in need of publicly funded contraceptive services–those who are in need of contraceptive services and supplies and either have incomes below 250% of the federal poverty level or are younger than 20–increased by 6%. Meanwhile, the number of women of reproductive age and the total number of women in need of contraceptive services each rose by only 1%, indicating that the broader economic trends of the period, rather than population growth, drove the change.
Poor and minority women were disproportionately affected by this change. Between 2000 and 2004, the number of poor adult women (with incomes under 100% of poverty) in need of contraceptive services increased by 15%. In contrast, the number who were low income (100–249% of poverty) increased by only 3%, and the number who were higher income (at or above 250% of poverty) declined by 3%. Similarly, the number of women in need who were Hispanic increased by 14%, while the number who were black increased by 4% and the number who were white declined by 2%.
So while low-income women are trying to responsible handle their fertility so they don't need abortions, the Christofascist Zombie Brigade is trying to deny them the ability to do so:
The theocrats have also intimidated scientists, stalled over-the-counter sales of an emergency contraceptive called Plan B, and used their political connections to get federal funds for their so-called pregnancy resource centers, where they wrongly inform pregnant women that abortions are linked to breast cancer and infertility. Several family planning experts say that same group of rigid ultraconservatives is now working to limit access to contraceptives.
They "are increasingly trying to portray contraceptives as ineffective and trying to redefine some of the most popular and effective methods as abortion -- such as birth control pills and emergency contraception," said Cynthia Dailard, senior public policy analyst for the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which advocates family planning.
If these Christianists were genuinely interested in curbing abortions, they'd support the use of contraceptives. But their goal is to turn back the clock, to bring back the days when women had no control over reproduction. Like right-wing Muslims, they rage against modernity itself.
Some examples:
"Fostering the Culture of Life does not only mean respect for life from conception until natural death. It means also repudiation of contraception, the root cause of all other attacks on human life. Contraception, which shows a willingness to sacrifice life to lust, is a fuse that ignites a whole chain of evils destructive of a just society, from abortion to euthanasia.
"Worse than the ten plagues which devastated Egypt, the contraceptive mentality is a multi-pronged attack on society. It tends to permeate more and more social structures and even creates its own institutions.
"The contraceptive mentality diminishes the level of love in society and increases the level of selfishness and lust. In education, it promotes sex-education and the resultant corruption of the young. In hospital care, it leads to sterilization, abortion and euthanasia." -- Msgr. Vincent Foy
"We see contraception and abortion as part of a mind-set that's worrisome in terms of respecting life. If you're trying to build a culture of life, then you have to start from the very beginning of life, from conception, and you have to include how we think and act with regard to sexuality and contraception." -- Edward R. Martin, Jr., attorney for Americans United for Life
"The effective separation of sex from procreation may be one of the most important defining marks of our age — and one of the most ominous. This awareness is spreading among American evangelicals, and it threatens to set loose a firestorm.. . .A growing number of evangelicals are rethinking the issue of birth control — and facing the hard questions posed by reproductive technologies." -- R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
If you think this is going to end with overturning Roe v. Wade, or even chipping away at it till it's meaningless, guess again. They've already succeeded in taking contraception away from poor women because of cuts in federal funding. Your own prescription is next. I'm postmenopausal, so it's no longer my problem. But for many younger women reading this, it's still yours. Don't take your rights for granted.
(hat tip: Feministing)
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