As the political fight over Planned Parenthood in Washington intensifies, the number of abortions performed in Massachusetts continues to decline.
Abortions in the state have dropped nearly by 11 percent, from 20,802 in the year 2010 to 18,570 in the year 2015, according to the Associated Press review of the most recent statistics from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
This decline mirrors the nationwide trends.
A report released in the November by federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered the abortion rate for the year 2013 was 12.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged between 15-44, which is down by 5 percent from the year 2012 and half the number of abortions reported in the year 1980.
According to the more recent survey conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group which supports the abortion rights, found the annual number of abortions in the United States dropped under 1 million in the year 2014, which is lowest since the year 1974.
In this month, President Donald Trump signed a legislation that aimed at letting the states to deny federal family planning money to the Planned Parenthood and also other abortion providers. The law reverses a rule that said states could not block the money.
But Jennifer Childs-Roshak, CEO and also the president of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said that the drop in the abortion numbers is often overlooked in the political debate over funds for the Planned Parenthood. She also said that better access to birth control, more reliable birth control and also better sex education are responsible for the decline.
A key factor to the improved access to the birth control nationally was the 2010 health care law signed by the former President Barack Obama which classified birth control as a preventative service, she said.
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Massachusetts Citizens for Life President Anne Fox credited the drop in abortions in the part on efforts by her group, including the social media campaigns, a quarterly magazine and also educational programs targeted at high schoolers and others.
The statistics also show that why Planned Parenthood remains at the center of the debate over abortion for more than four decades after the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, which established a nationwide right to abortion. More than 57 percent of the abortions in Massachusetts were performed at Planned Parenthood clinics during the year 2015.
In Massachusetts, their is a strong support for the organization.
The Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has said that his administration is prepared to increase the state assistance for Planned Parenthood clinics if the Congress blocks Medicaid funding for the organization.
The Massachusetts statistics also provide other detail on abortions in the year 2015, including:
Nearly 77 percent of the women obtained abortions between the ages of 20 and 34.
71 percent of the abortions were performed during the first eight weeks of pregnancy; just 15 abortions were performed at 24 weeks of the pregnancy or later.
More than 74 percent of the abortions were obtained by women who were not married.
About 46 percent of the women who are obtaining abortions were white, and 16 percent were black, about 13 percent were Hispanic and also 6 percent were Asian.
Half of the abortions were the first-time abortions for the women involved; 25 percent had one previous abortion while 9 percent had three or more previous abortions.
Mrudula Duddempudi.
