ABORTION SURVEILLANCE : UNITED STATES, 1995

This report summarizes and discusses the 1995 US abortion data that were reported to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The CDC has collected these data from the 50 states the District of Columbia and New York City every year since 1969 and the annual number of abortions in the US has decreased by 15% since 1990. In 1995 1210883 legal abortions were reported to the CDC--a decrease of 4.5% from 1994. This figure also represented the lowest abortion ratio (311/1000 live births) and ratio (20/1000 women of reproductive age) since 1975. Most women undergoing an abortion were young White unmarried and having a first abortion. About half of the procedures were performed at 8 or fewer weeks gestation and 88% occurred before 13 weeks. About 16% occurred at 6 or fewer weeks gestation and only about 4% were obtained at 16- 20 weeks (more often by women 24 years old or younger). Most legal abortions were performed in California New York City Texas and Florida and 92% of women for whom residence data were reported obtained abortions in their home state.