The Complex Face Of Abortion

Race, Economics Compose Largest Factors In U.S. Abortion Rates

(AP)  For many Americans, the face of abortion is a frightened teenager, nervously choosing to terminate an unexpected pregnancy. The numbers tell a far more complex story in which financial stress often plays a pivotal role.

Half of the roughly 1.2 million U.S. women who have abortions each year are 25 or older. Only about 17 percent are teens. Sixty percent have given birth to least one child prior to getting an abortion.

A disproportionately high number are black or Hispanic. And regardless of race, high abortion rates are linked to hard times.

"It doesn't just happen to young people, it doesn't necessarily have to do with irresponsibility," said Miriam Inocencio, president of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island. "Women face years and years of reproductive life after they've completed their families, and they're at risk of an unintended pregnancy that can create an economic strain."

Activists on both sides of the abortion debate will soon be marking the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, which established a nationwide right to abortion. Since Jan. 22, 1973, there have been roughly 50 million abortions in the United States, and more than one-third of adult women are estimated to have had at least one.

Who are these women?

They come from virtually every demographic sector. But year after year the statistics reveal that black women and economically struggling women - who have above-average rates of unintended pregnancies - are far more likely than others to have abortions.

Though about 13 percent of American women are black, new federal figures show they account for 35 percent of the abortions.

Black anti-abortion activists depict this phenomenon in dire terms - "genocide" and "holocaust," for example. But often the women getting the abortions say they act in the interests of children they already have.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me to make, because I knew where I wanted to go in my life - I've never regretted it," said Kimberly Mathias, 28, an African-American single mother from Missouri.

She had an abortion at 19, when she already raising a 2-year-old son.

"It wasn't hard to realize I didn't want another child at that time," Mathias said. "I was trying to take care of the one I had, and going to college and working at the same time."

She was able to graduate, now has an insurance job, and - still a single mother - has a 3-year-old son as well as her first-born, now 11.

By contrast, Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr., calls herself a "reformed murderer" for undergoing two abortions when she was young.

Now an outspoken anti-abortion campaigner, King says the best way to reduce abortions among black women is to dissuade more of them from premarital sex.

"We give free sex education, free condoms, free birth control," she complained. "That's almost like permission to have free sex, and the higher the rate of sexual activity, the higher the rate of unintended pregnancy."

Anti-abortion activist Day Gardner of the National Black Pro-Life Union says many blacks are unaware of their community's high abortion rate.

"We don't talk about it," Gardner said. "It's a silent killer among us."

She contends that abortion-rights supporters tempt black women into abortion by suggesting they can't afford to raise the child. But Gardner also acknowledges that some black women make this argument on their own.

"We had the whole civil rights movement - now we're in a place where we're moving further toward equality," Gardner said. "So women think, 'For once, I can see the American dream. I can have the house and the job, but it would postpone it to have another child. I can't afford to take time off."'

Dr. Vanessa Cullins, a black physician who is Planned Parenthood's national vice president for medical affairs, said the allegations of "black genocide" do not help women meet day-to-day challenges.

"These actions take attention away from medically proven ways to reduce unintended pregnancy - comprehensive sex education, affordable birth control, and open and honest conversations about relationships," she said

Looking beyond racial dividing lines, Cullins views the right to abortion as an important component in the ability of all American women to determine the right size of their family.

"Groups that become assimilated in U.S. culture and experience economic opportunities naturally decide to limit family size, because they want to take part in the American dream," she said. "Nowadays, that usually requires two people bringing in the income. If you're a single mother, achieving the dream is all the harder, so it makes sense to limit family size so you can shower as much support as you can on the children you have."

Georgette Forney, who had an abortion when she was 16 and is now an anti-abortion campaigner who heads Anglicans for Life, says she often sees economic pressures triggering abortions, even in middle-class families.

"In one situation, the husband was adamant that they were on track to pay for their two sons' college education, and a third child would throw off his whole calculation," Forney recounted. "So that baby was aborted and that woman was devastated. It was a five-year process to recover."

Forney said she also encountered a single mother who was worried she might lose custody of her daughter in light of a suit by the biological father. The woman then became pregnant, Forney said, and had an abortion in violation of her own beliefs because she feared having a second child would jeopardize prospects for keeping her daughter.

"We've begun to depend on abortions," Forney said. "We feel we have to choose between our unborn child and our born children. We shouldn't have to choose."

Martha Girard, on the other hand, says she's appalled by the notion that women should lose the right to choose.

A hospital ultrasound technician from Pleasant Prairie, Wis., and a mother of three, Girard had an abortion two years ago, at the age of 44, when she mistakenly thought she was too old to get pregnant.

Having been through three difficult pregnancies previously, and coping with a mentally disabled eldest son, she felt abortion was the prudent choice.

"I knew that this pregnancy would end up badly - I could feel it - and we've already got enough problems with the mentally ill son," Girard said.

"I was very sad and depressed the first week," she added. "But because it's hard on you emotionally and some women regret it, that doesn't mean it's wrong, that you shouldn't have done it, that someone else should decide for you."

The Journal of Family Issues published a report earlier this month asserting that women often choose abortion because of their wish to be good parents.

That means women who have no children want the conditions to be right when they do, and women who already are mothers want to care responsibly for their existing children, said the lead author, Rachel Jones, a researcher with the Guttmacher Institute.

"These women believed that it was more responsible to terminate a pregnancy than to have a child whose health and welfare could be in question," Jones said.

Even among many abortion opponents, the Guttmacher Institute - which supports abortion rights -is considered the nation's best source of abortion statistics.

Federal statistics do not include California, the most populous state, because its government does not provide data. But Guttmacher researchers surveyed abortion providers there as well as in other states to produce the latest national estimate of 1.2 million abortions in 2005, down from a peak of 1.6 million in 1990 but still representing more than 20 percent of all pregnancies.

One of the Guttmacher's top researchers, Stanley Henshaw, said the recent drop may disguise the fact abortion rates remain relatively high for black and Hispanic women. He believes the most effective countermeasure would be wider availability of contraceptives such as intrauterine device, or IUDs, that don't require attention as frequently as condoms or birth-control pills.

But Henshaw noted that even women who are sterilized sometimes get pregnant and have abortions.

"Every method fails sometimes," he said. "There's always going to be a need for abortions."

Though abortion is commonplace across the country, urban areas have far higher rates than rural areas where access to abortion providers can be difficult.

New York, New Jersey, California, Delaware, Nevada, Maryland and Florida had the highest abortion rates in 2005, according to the new Guttmacher report released this week. Wyoming, Idaho, Kentucky, South Dakota and Mississippi had the lowest rates - the latter two states have just a single abortion clinic in operation.

Susan Hill, founder of the National Women's Health Organization that runs the remaining Mississippi clinic, says the statistics may not fully reflect a subgroup of relatively affluent women who obtain unreported abortions through their private doctors.

"In Mississippi, it's the poor women who don't have access to that who have to run through the maze of protesters screaming and yelling abuse," Hill said. "Wealthier women can be more creative about their alternatives."

According to Guttmacher data, the abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level is more than four times higher than that among women from middle-income and affluent households.

An increasing number of women avoid surgery by using the RU-486 abortion pill or other early medication - these now account for about 13 percent of all abortions.

Of all U.S. women getting abortions, about 54 percent are doing so for the first time, while one-fifth have had at least two previous abortions. Of those over 20, 57 percent have attended college. About 60 percent have at least one child, while one-third have two or more.

"I don't think most people understand that these are women who have families, who are making a very serious decision about their reproductive health," said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "The stereotype is that the decision is made lightly. It is not."

[rholley5]

now i understand why all you can do is insult me. And anyone that crosses you. You know that i''m correct in my opinion on what i was addressing. And you don''t know what to say...that speaks of ignorance...I was NOT insulting you and we both know it...Now i know that you will take this as one...but still i''m not...i''m only showing you that there is absolutly no rhyme or reason in anything you say

[mercyme884]

Last week everyone was talking about a Marine who was believed to have murdered a woman who carried his unborn child. And the week before everyone was aghast at the idea of a father tossing his four children into the river, drowning them all. And here we all are saying it is all right to murder an unborn child if a mother chooses to do it. Get real people! Is it all right to murder and abuse little children or is it not murder it can''t be both ways.Every child was once unborn, but it was still a living child. If it is OK to murder children then the law should let all the molesters and child murderers out of prison to do their own thing. And you people should cut out all the outrage about someone murdering their own children. If it is ok to abort(murder before birth) It should be ok to murder them after they are born.

[Krazcarl]

rholley5...I just wish you would think period I''m so sick of idiots like you looking for a free pass to heaven you don''t care who you hurt along the way. Take care of the poor the disabled help people not sit on your hinny and condem folks that don''t agree with your agenda.

[rholley5]

rholley5...I learned a long time ago to base my beliefs on what other think or i would be a circus monkey like you know this is none of you business but not only try inflict your views on others you degrade them. To be honest I''''m anti abortion but it''''s not my place to inflict my thoughts on others unless it harms me it does not. In my life I have known some ladies that choose this route it left very big scares and open wounds so you self rightous idiots yelling murder and trash. You so self absorbed you think that is what god wants.

That isn''t what i was doing...pardon me if i came across that way. I was mearly saying that in my belief you can''t push your beliefs in something...Now are you saying that if someone told you to believe the world was going to implode within two years would you believe it just because? I think that its people like you that believe what they are told that get us into so much trouble...you have to learn to stick up for yourself and believe what YOU feel is right...not what others say is. I did not degrade their beliefs, and i''m sorry that you feel that way...but you are constantly crossing yourself...you are degrading my beliefs saying that i''m a circus monkey and yet you tell me i can''t say that we are all wrong and all right in some areas and we should try and focus on what we can agree on. I think that you need to step back and think before you speak

[oldpilot954]

these are the folks going over to foreign countries to abopted, for whatever reason while all the kids here sit in that foster homes/orphanges, etc.
Posted by Paganmama

The reason that a lot of people go to other countries to adopt are two-fold. One is that they perceive a greater need in those countries because there are no foster care or medicaid systems except those operated by charitable organizations. Probably of greater impact for my circle of acquaintenances is that after the expense to adopt, the current court system may decide to return the child to it''s biological parents at almost any age. Therefore, after you have spent thousands of dollars and poured your heart into raising the child, he/she gets snatched away and returned to the environment you rescued him/her from. All it really takes is for the mom to change her mind (or the dad to find out about the baby) and have enough money to pursue it. The chances of that happening in international adoptions is very slim. An additional issue in at least two situations that I have known is that US adoption providers set such a high standard that the parents are unable to meet them. Things like being too old (40-ish), overweight, or being lower middle-class instead of upper middle- class in income and housing, etc. exclude many potientially good parents from adopting.

[Krazcarl]

rholley5...I learned a long time ago to base my beliefs on what other think or i would be a circus monkey like you know this is none of you business but not only try inflict your views on others you degrade them. To be honest I''m anti abortion but it''s not my place to inflict my thoughts on others unless it harms me it does not. In my life I have known some ladies that choose this route it left very big scares and open wounds so you self rightous idiots yelling murder and trash. You so self absorbed you think that is what god wants.

[mennowoman]

I think it''s ironic that we celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, a man who was pro-life and pro-black, and then the next day applaud abortion rights when it''s black women who are the most frequent users of abortion services. It''s a subtle genocide, it heavily promote abortion among the people of color in this country, while encouraging white women to keep their babies. Abortion service providers border on being racists. There are as many poor white women in this country as there are poor black women, so you''ve got to ask yourself what''s really going on here. If you''ve been to any black neighborhoods lately, you''ll have noticed the pro-choice billboards and the abortion clinics right in those neighborhoods. But you won''t see that in "white neighborhoods." Abortion is a subtle yet devastating form of racism.

[xounds]

The economics angle is false. Funny how there is plenty of money for Gucchi purses (the poor and middle-class try to show off with them), for Magnums (cars and champagne), for make-up, for dinner out, for giant flat-screen tvs that barely fit in their apartments or houses, for running to the mall, for fake nails, for hair color, etc and etc. They just want to kill their offspring. From an evolutionary standpoint, that is good. From the standpoint of the person robbed of THEIR chance at life, of course it is very sad.

[rholley5]

Can%u2019t you anti abortion folks just f*ck off and leave these women alone and take care of your own business your half the reason ladies have abortion to keep their offspring from wackos like you, You preach chisten love and show done, THERE IS NO FREE PASS TO HEAVEN read the book you have been beating your just lame looking for the higher ground. Take care of yourselves leave the rest to god period.
Posted by crzmeat at 07:55 PM : Jan 21, 2008
It%u2019s rather sad that you%u2019re telling us to f**k off when look at you...are you not doing the same thing that they are all doing? Beating them upside the head with your own version of truth. I also think that you aren''t helping your argument very much by tearing us down, by saying that we are the reason that women abort their children.

[rholley5]

Can''''t you anti abortion folks just f*ck off and leave these women alone and take care of your own business your half the reason ladies have abortion to keep thier offspring from wackos like you, You preach chisten love and show done, THERE IS NO FREE PASS TO HEAVEN read the book you have been beating your just lame looking for the higher ground. Take care of yourselves leave the rest to god period.
Posted by crzmeat at 07:55 PM : Jan 21, 2008

But you are right about one thing. The way some of the people portrayed christianity on this page have completely turned people off from even the concept of it. Who are we to say that you are going to hell. We have no presidence to say anything of the sort. We are told to love and forgive...not hate and knash our teeth at one another. Even as He was being crucified, He said Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. I hope that He is saying that as He looks down on this trash.