Nebraska Abortions Down 11.5 Percent Since 2004, 2nd Lowest Since Roe 
Email this article
Printer friendly page
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 21, 2006
Lincoln, NE (LifeNews.com) — The number of abortions in Nebraska has dropped more than 11 percent from 2004, according to the latest 2005 abortion totals from the state’s health department. The number of abortions in 2005 was the lowest record total since the state’s second year of collecting abortion figures in 1975.
According to the Nebraska Health and Human Services, the number of abortions in 2005, 3,173, was half the 1990 total and the 11.5 percent drop from 2004 to 2005 is more evidence that abortions continue to decline — and rapidly — during the Bush administration.
Greg Schleppenbach, director of pro-life activities for the Nebraska Catholic Conference, told the Associated Press that pro-life education has helped change the abortion attitudes of teens and young adults — the most likely group to have abortions.
Young adults "are much more inclined to see abortion as violence and as a failure," he said. "They are more inclined to abstinence and spirituality."
But, Bonnie Kierstead, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Nebraska and Council Bluffs, claimed in an AP interview that sex education has led to the decline.
According to the state’s report, the average age of a woman having an abortion was 25.6 but women between 20-24 had the highest abortion rates of any age category.
Seventeen percent of abortions in the state in 2005 were done on girls under the age of 19 and girls under 15 accounted for 0.5% of all abortions.
Coinciding with other research, about 90 percent of the women having an abortion cited various socioeconomic reasons for having the abortion.
Abortion totals have been drastically declining recently in Nebraska.
The number of abortions there dropped 10.2 percent in 2004, the third lowest number since the first full year of tracking abortions in 1974. In 1974, there were 3,094, and in 1975, there were 3,406 abortions performed.
In 1990, there were 6,346 abortions — the highest single-year tally ever recorded in Nebraska.
