US Abortions Rising as Court Prepares to Issue Ruling

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A new report says the number and rate of abortions² in the United States increased from 2017 to 2020, after a long period of decline. An abortion¹ is a medical procedure that ends a pregnancy³.

The Guttmacher Institute is a research group that supports abortion rights. It released its latest report about abortions in the United States on Wednesday.

The researchers counted more than 930,000 abortions in the nation in 2020. That is up from about 862,000 abortions in 2017. That was when national abortion numbers reached their lowest point since the 1973 U.S. Supreme⁴ Court ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.

About one in five pregnancies⁵ ended in abortion in 2020, the report found. The report's release comes as the Supreme Court appears ready to overturn its 1973 ruling.

The number of women seeking abortions demonstrates a need for the procedure, said Sara Rosenbaum. She is a health law and policy professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She added that the report shows "how devastating⁶ a Supreme Court decision is going to be for access to an absolutely vital service."

Medication abortions, sometimes called the "abortion pill," accounted for 54 percent of U.S. abortions in 2020. That was the first time they made up more than half of abortions, Guttmacher said in its report.

The COVID-19 pandemic may have pushed down the numbers in some states, the report said. In New York, abortions increased from 2017 to 2019, then fell 6 percent between 2019 and 2020. One in 10 clinics in New York suspended or stopped abortion care in 2020.

Texas saw a 2 percent decrease between 2019 and 2020, because of pandemic-related abortion restrictions⁷ in the state.

Experts say the pandemic may also have limited the availability of birth control and other forms of contraception. It also may have prevented women from attending all the health care visits involved in a pregnancy.

But abortions already were increasing before the pandemic began. One important factor is that some states expanded Medicaid access to abortion. Medicaid is a government program that provides health care to people in need.

Illinois, for example, began permitting state Medicaid money to pay for abortions starting in January 2018. The state saw abortions increase 25 percent between 2017 and 2020.

In neighboring Missouri, abortions dropped sharply. But the number of Missouri residents traveling to Illinois for abortions increased.

Carol Tobias is president of the National Right to Life Committee, which opposes abortion. She said, "If states are paying for abortions I hope they are also looking at how to support childbirth, so a woman doesn't think abortion is the best or only option."

Guttmacher carries out the nation's largest survey of abortion providers every three years. Its numbers are considered more complete than data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC does not include several states like California, the nation's most populous⁸ state.

In 2020, fewer women were getting pregnant and a larger amount of them chose abortion, the researchers found.

The abortion rate in 2020 was 14.4 per 1,000 women aged⁹ 15 to 44. That is an increase from 13.5 per 1,000 women in 2017.

Words in This Story

devastating — adj. causing great damage or harm

vital — adj. extremely important

contraception — n. things that are done to prevent a woman from becoming pregnant

resident — n. someone who lives in a particular place

survey — n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

1 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

2 abortions   

n.小产( abortion的名词复数 )；小产胎儿；（计划）等中止或夭折；败育

参考例句：

• The Venerable Master: By not having abortions, by not killing living beings. 上人：不堕胎、不杀生。 来自互联网
• Conclusion Chromosome abnormality is one of the causes of spontaneous abortions. 结论：染色体异常是导致反复自然流产的原因之一。 来自互联网

3 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

4 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

5 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

6 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

7 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

8 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

9 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。