Induced Abortion in the United States
INCIDENCE OF ABORTION
• Half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion.[1]
•Twenty-one percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.[2]
• In 2011, 1.06 million abortions were performed, down 13% from 1.21 million in 2008. From 1973 through 2011, nearly 53 million legal abortions occurred.[2]
• Each year, 1.7% of women aged 15-44 have an abortion [2]. Half have had at least one previous abortion.[3]
• At least half of American women will experience an unintended pregnancy by age 45, and at 2008 abortion rates, one in 10 women will have an abortion by age 20, one in four by age 30 and three in 10 by age 45.[4,5]