Kansas Has Its Fewest Abortions in 30 Years as More Babies are Saved From Death

State   |   Dave Andrusko   |   Apr 4, 2018   |   5:39PM   |   Topeka, KS

A preliminary report released Tuesday by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment [KDHE] says there were 6,782 abortions in 2017, the lowest number in 30 years.

“The 6,782 reported abortions in 2017 is the fewest in the state since 1987, when there were 6,409,” reported Jason Tidd of the Wichita Eagle. “The number was as high as 12,445 in 1999 before dropping to 6,810 in 2016.”

KDHE’s “Abortions in Kansas, 2017, Preliminary Report” is 36 pages long and, as noted in the beginning, “State law requires that physicians and hospitals report abortions they perform to KDHE.” (The Woman’s Right-to-Know Act.)

“Kansas has passed a lot of NRLC priority bills, such as A Woman’s Right to Know, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a ban on dismemberment abortions, and laws to involve parents in the abortion decisions of their minor daughters, to name just a few,” said Ingrid Duran, director of NRLC’s Department of State Legislation. “As this latest report demonstrates, these laws continue to have a very positive impact in saving the lives of unborn babies.”

The data table breaks out the 6,782 total into three categories: 3,372 were to Kansas women; 3,377 were to women from other states (mostly Missouri ); and 33 Kansas women went to other states to abort.

Perhaps no longer surprising, according to KDHE’s preliminary report, 58% of the abortions were chemically-induced, while “suction curettage was used in another 33 percent,” according to Tidd, and dilation and evacuation accounted for “9 percent, or 592.”

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Other figures from Tidd’s analysis of Abortions in Kansas, 2017, Preliminary Report:

  • “About 31 percent of the women, or 2,069, were between 20 and 24 years old — more than any other age group in the report. An additional 4 percent, or 239, were women 40 years old or older. There were 720, or 11 percent, who were teenagers; 192 were younger than 18.”
  • ”For 68 percent of the women and girls, it was their first abortion.” 21.% had one previous abortion’ 7.6% had undergone two previous abortions; 2% had aborted three times previously while 1.5% had aborted four or more unborn children.
  • ”About 58 percent of the women were mothers with at least one living child before terminating their pregnancies.”
  • 83.8% were unmarried.

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.