More abortions than ever are being performed in the United States, largely on unmarried white women under the age of 25, federal health officials reported.
The Centers for Disease Control said Thursday about 1.36 million legal abortions were performed in 1987, up 1 percent from the 1.33 million abortions in 1986 and the highest number since the government health agency began keeping statistics in 1969.In 1972, the year before the Supreme Court ruled that states cannot ban the procedure, only 586,760 abortions, or just 43 percent of the current total, were performed in the United States, the CDC said. By 1976, the number of abortions had registered their most dramatic jump to 988,267, or 73 percent of the current total.
"The reported number of women getting legal induced abortions increased quite sharply from 1969 to 1982," said Audrey F. Saftlas, a CDC epidemiologist. "Since 1982, there have been increases, but not quite as sharp. That's what you'd expect right after legalization - steady increases, then plateauing."
For every 1,000 babies born in 1987, there were 356.1 abortions, compared with a low of 180.1 in 1972 and a high of 364.1 in 1980, the CDC said. At the same time, 24 of every 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 had abortions, compared to a low of 13 in 1972 and a high of 25 in 1980.
White women continue to use abortion most often to end pregnancy, accounting for 66.4 percent of the procedures in 1987 compared with 33.6 percent for blacks and other minorities, the CDC said. The federal health agency said 72.8 percent of abortion patients were unmarried women, and 53.6 percent of them have never had children.
The majority of abortion patients were under age 25; 25.8 percent of them were under 19 and 33.4 percent between the ages of 20 and 24.
"Women obtaining legal abortions in 1986 and 1987 were predominantly less than 25 years of age, white and unmarried, and had no live births," the CDC said.
Twenty-six percent of the abortions were performed in the ninth and 10th weeks of pregnancy, 12.4 percent in the 11th and 12th weeks and about 1 percent after 21 weeks, the CDC said.