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This podcast provides a summary of the latest CDC Abortion Surveillance Report. It is the one of two podcasts available on this topic. The report is prepared annually by CDC's Division of Reproductive Health. Additional information on this CDC Surveillance System is available at http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth.
This podcast is presented by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC - Safer. Healthier. People.
This podcast provides highlights from the recent report: Abortion Surveillance, United States, 2003. For additional information on how this information is collected, please listen to the first podcast of this series: CDC's Abortion Surveillance System.
For 2003, approximately 848,000 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas.
The abortion ratio was 241 legal induced abortions per 1,000 live births. This represents a decrease from the 2002 ratio of 246 abortions per 1,000 live births.
The abortion rate was 16 legal induced abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years. This represents no change from the 2002 report.
As in the past, the highest percentage of abortions were obtained by white women, at fifty-five percent. Unmarried women accounted for 82% of abortions. Women under 25 years of age represented 51% of all abortions.
Sixty-one percent of reported abortions were performed during the first 8 weeks of gestation. Approximately 88% were performed within the first 12 weeks of gestation.
Thirty-six areas reported information regarding medical, or what some refer to as nonsurgical, abortions. Data shows 7.9% of all reported procedures were identified as medical abortions.
Information for this surveillance report is provided voluntarily to CDC by state health departments, New York City, and the District of Columbia. This report does not contain information from California, New Hampshire, West Virginia and territories of the United States.
CDC began abortion surveillance in 1969 to document the number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions. Surveillance systems such as this one continue to provide data necessary to examine trends in public health. This report looks at only one of many aspects about pregnancy outcomes in the United States.
For additional information on this report and related annual reports, please visit CDC's MMWR website at www.cdc.gov/mmwr and select "Surveillance Reports" from the menu on the left side of the page.
To access the most accurate and relevant health information that affects you, your family and your community, please visit www.cdc.gov.
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