A new Centers for Disease Control report shows a 2-percent drop in abortions in 2020, representing approximately 9,400 unborn babies’ lives.
According to the annual report, published Wednesday, there were 620,327 abortions in the United States, excluding California, Maryland and New Hampshire. That is down from 629,898 abortions in 2019.
Researchers said the COVID-19 pandemic likely affected the numbers due to the shutdowns and reduced sexual activity. However, the report also shows a steady decline in abortions since 2011.
ABC News reports abortion numbers went down 15 percent from 2011 to 2020, and the abortion rate declined by 18 percent. The abortion rate is the number of abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age.
Additionally, the CDC found that four women died from abortion complications from legal abortions in 2019, and 36 died since 2011.
The statistics provide a portrait of the women getting abortions. Almost all are unmarried (86 percent), many are in their 20s (57 percent) and more than half already have at least one child (61 percent). Additionally, more than half aborted their unborn babies using abortion drugs, which abortion activists have been working aggressively to expand.
Fewer are teenagers, however. The report found a huge drop in the teen abortion rate, down 48 percent since 2011.
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Comparing abortion rates with population numbers, the report found a disproportionately high number of African American and Hispanic babies are aborted compared to Caucasians.
According to ABC News:
Black women had an abortion rate nearly four times higher than that of white women at 24 abortions per 1,000 Black women compared to 6.2 abortions per 1,000 white women.
Additionally, while Hispanic women made up a smaller share of the abortions performed in 2020 at 21%, the abortion rate was 1.8 times that of white women at 11.4 abortions per 1,000 Hispanic women.
According to CNN, the highest abortion rate was in Washington, D.C. and the lowest was in Missouri. The only abortion facility in Missouri stopped aborting unborn babies that year.
The report found that most unborn babies were aborted in the first trimester (93 percent), 5.8 percent were aborted between 14 and 20 weeks gestation, and .9 percent were aborted at or after 21 weeks, according to the CDC.
The .9 percent represents 4,382 potentially viable, late-term unborn babies. Significantly, the CDC pointed out that its late-term abortion data is incomplete because some states do not provide data on the gestation of the abortion. These include pro-abortion states where most late-term abortions occur, including California, Maryland, Illinois and New York, as well as Washington, D.C.
Reporting abortion data to the CDC is voluntary, so its report is incomplete. An independent report from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research group that surveys abortion facilities in every state, estimated there were about 930,000 abortions in 2020. This is considered to be the most accurate estimate.
Pro-life advocates anticipate that abortions will drop even more significantly in 2021. Last year, Texas became the first state to enforce a near-total abortion ban in nearly 50 years. Oklahoma became the second several months later, and, since June when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in a historic victory for life, 12 others also began enforcing laws that ban or strictly limit the killing of unborn babies in elective abortions.
New research estimates these state pro-life laws have saved as many as 10,000 unborn babies’ lives since June.
