Repeat Abortions in the US on the Rise; Now Half of All Abortions

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Nov 22, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Repeat Abortions in the US on the Rise; Now Half of All Abortions Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 22
, 2006

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) — Repeat abortions used to account for about 40 percent of all abortions in the United States, but a new study from the Alan Guttmacher Institute shows that figure is on the rise. Now, about half of every abortion done annually is an abortion done on a woman who has had at least one previous abortion.

The study from AGI, the research arm of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion business, examined the abortions done on women in 2002.

AGI said the typical profile of a woman having a repeat abortion is someone over the age of 30 who already has children and was using contraception at the time of the pregnancy.

Women seeking repeat abortions were also mostly lower-income women and 60 percent already had at least one child.

The research group relied on different surveys from both government and private groups to compile its research report and it indicated that one government survey of abortions from 2001-2002 showed 48 percent of women having repeat abortions.

Rachel Jones, a senior research associate on the study, told Reuters that the AGI survey "suggests that we need to do a better job helping all women better prevent unwanted pregnancies, so they can avoid having to decide whether to seek abortions or raise children they are not prepared for."

The survey also showed that one in three women had given birth to a baby in an unplanned pregnancy and 10 percent of all women had more than one unintended birth.

Sharon Camp, the president and CEO of AGI, told Reuters, that the solution to the repeat abortion problem was more abortions.

Camp urged promoting abortion businesses so abortion practitioners could tell women about contraception use after they have an abortion — even thought most women having repeat abortions were using contraception at the time.

She also claimed the Bush administration’s "wall of separation" between family planning clinics and abortion centers led to more abortions.