Several states are reporting their abortion rates have fallen to the lowest point in four decades, underscoring a drop in abortions nationwide.
Last year, abortions declined 6.5 percent in Utah, 8.7 percent in Ohio and 10 percent in Wisconsin, state officials have reported over the last week. In all three states, the abortion rate is now at its lowest point on record.
The declining abortion rates are a rare phenomenon both opponents and supporters of the controversial procedure can support, but it’s likely to only incite further disagreement over the reasons why fewer American women are seeking to terminate their pregnancies.
The decrease in Wisconsin has been especially marked. The abortion rate there peaked in 1980, when 20 women of childbearing age out of every 1,000 had an abortion. In 2014, just six women out of every 1,000 obtained the procedure.
None of the states weighed in on why the abortion rate might be falling, leaving activists to draw their own conclusions.
Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups have pointed to increased access to contraception among poor women. In a November report on abortions nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention partially attributed dropping rates to women using more effective types of birth control.
But all three states have passed stricter regulations on abortions and those who provide them, such as requiring longer waiting periods before women get an abortion, mandating clinics meet new building standards or requiring doctors to have hospital admitting privileges. Abortion opponents have emphasized the legal changes as one reason for the decline.
“While our work is not yet complete, it is comforting to know that our pro-life initiatives are working in Ohio,” said Michael Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life. “More and more babies are alive today because of the leadership of Gov. [John] Kasich and our pro-life legislature.”
The reports come amid a sharpened focus on abortion, as Republicans pummel Planned Parenthood over its involvement with aborted fetal tissue donations.
A series of recent undercover videos have highlighted how some of its clinics are compensated for providing aborted fetal body parts to human tissue companies. Obtained by anti-abortion investigator David Daleiden, the videos have prompted three House committees and about a dozen GOP-led states to investigate the women’s health and abortion provider.
Republicans and abortion opponents say Planned Parenthood illegally profited from the tissue or performed partial-birth abortions to obtain it, and some conservatives in Congress have vowed to wage a war this fall over stripping federal funds from the group. Planned Parenthood insists it has done nothing wrong.
