Nebraska Abortions Down 10 Percent, Lowest Total in 20 Years 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
April 7, 2005
Lincoln, NE (LifeNews.com) — Abortions in the state of Nebraska are drastically on the decline and new state figures show they dropped a whopping 10 percent in 2004. That makes the number of annual abortions at its lowest point since 1975.
In 1990, Nebraska abortions peaked at 6,346 but there were only 3,548 abortions in the state in 2004. The state Health and Human Services System reported that the lowest previous total was 3,406 abortions in 1975.
Greg Schleppenbach of the Nebraska Catholic Conference told the Associated Press the drop was encouraging and attributed it to a growing unease about abortion and education. He also says the debate over partial-birth abortion has exposed the gruesomeness of abortions and helpd changed minds.
Julie Schmit-Albin, the executive director of Nebraska Right to Life, told AP that she believes the decline is due, in part, to the strong pro-life views of teenagers and young adults.
Gov. Dave Heineman also said the report was good news, but he cautioned that more must be done to reduce the abortion numbers further.
"It is another encouraging step in our trend of change for the better," said Heineman. "However, the number of abortions shows there is still much work to be done."
Abortion advocates, on the other hand, say the use of the morning after pil has led to an abortion decline.
According to the report, the average age of women having abortions was nearly 26 while women 21 and 22 years-old had the most number of abortions.
Women having abortions cited socio-economic factors 91 percent of the time and contraception failure or lack of contraception were the second and third most cited reasons. Sixty-eight percent of the women had an abortion for the first time.
Most abortions were performed on Nebraska women while 380 Iowa residents came there for abortions last year — mostly in Omaha.
Related web sites:
Nebraska abortion report –
https://www.hhss.ne.gov/srd/abortion-report2004.pdf
