AUL: Some Abortion Stats Conspicuous by Their Absence by Chris Woodward

While a new report on abortion does provide useful information, one pro-life group says a lot of information is missing.

“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) just released its latest Abortion Surveillance report [covering calendar year 2015], and this collects data from most of the states,” says Rachel Busick of Americans United for Life (AUL). “However, the data is only voluntarily given to the CDC. And so of the 52 area reporting areas – which are the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the city of New York – only 49 reported information.”

Significantly missing from those reporting areas was New Hampshire, Maryland, and California, which Busick says together make up “a large percentage” (12%) of the population of the United States. “So the information we have is incomplete at best and skewed by selective reporting at worst,” she adds.

Busick

It gets worse. The CDC reports on a variety of factors and not every state requires reporting on each of those factors.

“So while 49 reported on the total abortions within the state, only 47 reported on maternal age, 43 reported what type of method was used, [and] only 30 identified the race or ethnicity of the woman who obtained the abortion,” Busick explains.

“While the report can provide useful information such as ‘The abortion rate among reporting areas has decreased and is the lowest rate since the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade,’ it does not provide the full picture of how many abortions are occurring in the United States.”

In a related article for National Review, Katie Yoder writes that even with the discrepancies the CDC’s reported decline is still reason for hope that the country is moving in the pro-life direction.

onenewsnow.com/pro-life/2018/12/03/aul-some-abortion-stats-conspicuous-by-their-absence