The Overlooked Key to the Drop in U.S. Abortions

By Susan E. Wills, JD, LLM
Lozier Institute

Abstract: New reports by the Guttmacher Institute suggest that recent declines in the abortion rate are linked to increased contraception use and more frequent use of longer-acting reversible contraceptives.  Yet a look at the data shows that increases in contraception use had little to do with the recent abortion decline.  This decline in the abortion rate has not been uniform among various age groups.  In particular, the abortion rate decline (both in absolute and percentage terms) has been the greatest among teens and young women (ages 20-24).  This fact – coupled with the facts that 1) “more effective” forms of contraception are unpopular among young women and 2) women who use “more-effective” contraceptive methods tend to discontinue their use at a high rate – provides strong evidence that other factors, including increases in abstinent behavior, played more significant roles in the post-1990 abortion decline. 

For those who believe in the infallibility of contraception, a decrease in abortions means one thing: contraceptives caused the drop. Two researchers at the Guttmacher Institute[i]–Kathryn Kost and Stanley Henshaw—have just published an article announcing the new figures for U.S. teen pregnancies, births and abortions as of 2010. Although the purpose of the article is to highlight key findings rather than present an analysis of the reason for historically low rates of teen pregnancies, births and abortions, the authors imply that more and better contraceptive use may be responsible.

Earlier this year, another Guttmacher Institute[1] study, authored by Rachel K. Jones and Jenna Jerman, announced a substantial, continuing drop in U.S. abortions. Their study was designed to assess only two factors: whether (1) a decline in the number of abortion providers and/or (2) recent “restrictive” state laws were responsible for the declining abortion rates. But this narrow focus did not prevent the authors from concluding that contraception was responsible. Without needing to study the issue, or to substantiate this claim, the authors confidently stated that abortions declined because more women used contraception, used it more consistently, and shifted to more effective contraceptive methods.

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