Surgical Abortion Rates Declining

Surgical abortion rates fell five percent nationwide in 2009, according to new information from the Centers for Disease Control, which tracks abortion figures nationwide.

Since 1969, CDC has conducted abortion surveillance to document the number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions in the United States. However, because the data doesn’t include numbers from all 50 states, most pro-life groups consider the data incomplete.

Still, the numbers are a good reference for understanding trends and the trend is that abortions are on the decline thanks to pro-life laws, the work of pregnancy centers and shutting down abortion clinics and practitioners who run afoul of the law. Most abortions are done at or before 8 weeks of gestation. 91.7 percent of all abortions are done before the baby reaches week 13.