Abortion Statistics
Click here for
the latest polls
Compare the number of abortions to other causes
of death
Statistics on abortion are derived
from two basic sources.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute
(AGI) is a research division of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest
abortion provider. They actively seek out statistics from abortion providers
nationwide, and publish extensive statistical analyses on there website. These
statistical summaries give information on how many abortions there are, who gets
them, and why they get them. For a summary, see
www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
The other source of statistics is
the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), located in Atlanta, Georgia. This
institute of the federal government receives from individual states, on a
voluntary basis, a report on the statistics regarding abortion in that state.
Regular summaries of this information are available to the public on a regular
basis -- for example, the report on
abortion surveillance, and the report on
pregnancy mortality surveillance
(pdf format). Because reporting to the CDC is voluntary, their numbers for
abortion statistics are lower than those of AGI.
Opinion tracking of the American
public about abortion is another area of statistical analysis. The Gallup
Organization (www.gallup.com) has conducted
an in-depth analysis of American public opinion on abortion and made their
summary available to the public. You can read more polls on abortion and
birth control from various sources at
www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm.
Late term abortions are more
frequent than reported by the media
