According to the U.S .Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, there were 846,181 abortions in the U.S. in 2006, the latest year for which government records are available.
The pro-abortion rights Alan Guttmacher Institute reports that there have been nearly 50 million abortions performed since 1973, the year the Supreme Court issued the Roe v. Wade decision ushering in legal abortion nationwide.
In 2008, Guttmacher says, there were 1.2 million "legally terminated pregnancies" in the United States, based on reports complied from state and local health agencies -- down from 1.3 million the year previous.
According to Guttmacher, 35 percent of all U.S. women will have had an abortion by age 45.
Guttmacher also reports that 93 percent of all abortions occur for “social reasons” such as a mother’s decision that the child is unwanted or “inconvenient.”
Both Guttmacher and CDC say that black women are more than four times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.7 times as likely...
Guttmacher says that there are 1,793 abortion “providers” in the United States and that the average amount paid for an abortion is $413.
-- Over 60 percent of abortions are among women who have had one or more children, and 90 percent of abortions occur within the first 12 weeks of a pregnancy.
-- About 20 percent of women having an abortion report using Medicaid to pay for abortions despite laws that prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to fund abortions.
-- One significant change that has occurred over the last decade comes as a result of the development of the drug RU-486 or the “Morning After Pill.”
-- Guttmacher estimates that use of the pill has risen significantly since 2005 and now accounts for 17 percent of all abortion procedures.
