Abortions drop for 10th year in Ohio

COLUMBUS: The number of abortions performed in Ohio dropped again last year, marking the 10th year of decline, according to a report by the state Department of Health.

Ohio women aborted 28,721 pregnancies last year, down 3 percent from 29,613 in 2008. Records show abortions are down 40 percent since hitting a peak in the early 1980s.

The 2009 statistics show that 83 percent of the women were unmarried and 62 percent already had one or more children.

The statewide figures were applauded by those on both sides of the abortion debate.

"We continue to witness a trend of Ohioans moving towards a firm respect for life," said Michael Gonidakis, executive director of Ohio Right to Life.

"Some had warned that Ohio's poor economy would lead to an increase in abortions, but we haven't seen that happen."

Ohio's rate of abortions continues to fall below the national average.

Last year saw 181 abortions for every 1,000 live births in Ohio compared with a national rate of 236 abortions for every 1,000 live births in 2006, the most recent national data available.

The annual report is based on information physicians must submit to the state Department of Health. It provides no analysis of why abortions are declining.

Abortion rights supporters and opponents had differing opinions.

Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, credited a switch by some schools to comprehensive sex education, a decline in unwanted pregnancies and greater access to emergency contraception.

"I think we are doing a better job of preventing unwanted pregnancies," Copeland said, adding that there has been a similar decline in the birth rate. "But the biggest thing that has happened is emergency contraception."

Since 2006, emergency contraception, sold under the name Plan B and sometimes called the morning-after pill, has been available at pharmacies without a prescription to women 18 or older. Last year, the age was lowered to 17.

Gonidakis suggested that newer Ohio laws were responsible for the drop.

"Whenever you have even the slightest legislative gain that protects women and defends her baby, it will make a difference," he said.

Gonidakis pointed to a law requiring doctors to offer a woman an ultrasound picture before she undergoes an abortion and another mandating that clinics post signs telling women that no one can force them to have an abortion.

The report showed that 1 in 5 abortions performed last year was a nonsurgical procedure, a trend in early abortions that has been climbing in the last few years with the availability of RU-486, the generic name for Mifepristone and often called the abortion pill. It causes a pregnancy to terminate in a way similar to miscarriage and is an option in the first seven to nine weeks of pregnancy.

The age distribution of women having abortions has remained fairly unchanged in recent years, with just over half younger than 25.

Of all women having abortions last year, 83 percent were unmarried and 64percent had a high-school diploma or less.

Close to half of all pregnancies in the U.S. are unintended, and 40% of those end in abortion. The U.S. still has one of the highest teen-pregnancy rates in the developed world — nearly twice as high as England and Canada, eight times as high as the Netherlands and Japan — and in December, the Centers for Disease Control reported that the teen birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years. Likewise, the U.S. abortion rates are disproportionately high: Rates in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands are less than half that in the U.S. — fewer than 10 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44.