Abortion in the United States, 1977-1978

There were 1.32 million legal abortions in the United States in 1977 and a projected 1.37 million in 1978, an increase of four percent between 1977 and 1978 compared with one of 12 percent between 1976 and 1977. In 1978, 29 percent of pregnant women chose to terminate their pregnancies by abortion. Almost three percent of U.S. women of reproductive age obtained an abortion in 1978. From 1967 through 1978, approximately six million women obtained almost eight million legal abortions; about one in eight U.S. women of reproductive age has had a legal abortion. The number of hospitals reporting that they provided abortion services dropped slightly from 1,695 in 1976 to 1,661 in 1977, but the number of nonhospital abortion clinics increased from 448 to 522, and the number of physicians who reported performing abortions in their offices grew from 424 to 533. Between 1976 and 1977, the average number of abortions per hospital facility decreased from 246 to 237, while the average number per nonhospital provider increased from 875 to 879. The percentage of abortions performed in hospitals declined from 35 in 1976 to 30 in 1977, while the percentage reported by free-standing clinics increased from 61 to 66; the percentage performed in physicians' offices remained at four. Ninety-five percent of abortions in 1977 occurred in metropolitan areas, where 75 percent of the women in need of abortion services live. In 1977, there were identified abortion providers in only 23 percent of U.S. counties. Nine percent (more than 118,000) of the women who obtained abortions in 1977 had to travel to another state for services, and many traveled to other, often distant, counties in their home states. One in three abortions in 1977 were obtained by teenagers, and three in four were obtained by unmarried women. Twenty-eight percent of the women estimated to be in need of abortion services in 1977, and 26 percent in 1978, were unable to obtain them. In FY 1977, before Hyde amendment restrictions on government financing of abortions for poor women, 133,000 of the estimated 427,000 Medicaid-eligible women in need of publicly funded abortion services were unable to obtain them.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Unintended pregnancies in the United States, 1970--1972

There were about 2.0--2.3 million unintended pregnancies in the United States each year during the early 1970s. Within this framework, the rapid rise in the number of abortions since 1973, to 1.3 million in 1977, is quite predictable.

Survey of abortion providers in Seoul, Korea

A survey of abortion providers in Seoul in late 1977 reveals a threefold increase in the rate of abortion and a greater than threefold rise in the ratio of abortions to live births since 1970. The survey findings also show that the overwhelming proportion of these abortions are performed in private clinics, by obstetrician-gynecologists, during the first trimester. The Seoul figures, which are similar to those of Romania and are higher than those of Japan in the early 1960s, indicate that abortion has contributed substantially to Korea's reduced fertility.

The pill and mortality from cardiovascular disease: another look

Analysis of U.S. mortality statistics shows that since adoption of the pill, deaths among women of reproductive age from cardiovascular diseases have declined much more steeply than have death rates for comparable men. This suggests that the high level of risk of death from such diseases associated with pill use in other studies are exaggerated.

The mathematics of repeat abortion: explaining the increase

In any given population, an increase in the proportion of repeat abortions, and a repeat-abortion rate that is substantially higher than the first-abortion rate, can be anticipated to occur over a number of years after abortion has been legalized. These are the findings of an analysis of repeat abortion for a population of women aged 15--44, using simple mathematical models based on the assumptions that the risk of abortion is constant over time and independent of prior abortion experience. The data generated by the models explain both the rapidly increasing percentage and the high rate of repeat abortion following legalization and refute assertions that making abortion widely available discourages the practice of contraception.

Abortion in the United States, 1976--1977

In 1976, about 1.2 million, and in 1977 some 1.3 million, abortions were performed in the U.S. More than half a million women were without the abortion services that they wanted. Poor, rural, young and black women were disporportionately represented among those not yet served.