Minority Women More Likely to Get Repeat Abortions

(Sept. 8, 2009) Minority women are much more likely to get repeat abortions than are white women, and this could be due to higher fertility rates among this group.

Black and Hispanic women are more likely than white women to get abortions for the third or fourth time (or more), the study says. Twenty-six percent of blacks were going through the procedure for at least the third time, as compared to 20% for Hispanics, and 14% for white women, as reported in the 2006 PDF “Repeat Abortions in the United States,” of the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood.

Thirty-two percent of all abortions occur to black women, while they make up only 14% of all women of childbearing years reviewed in the study. Twenty percent of abortions occur to Hispanic women, although they make up 15% of the study group, the study found. Forty-one percent of abortions occur to white women, while they make up 66% of the age group.

“Several groups of women are overrepresented among abortion patients, including those who are younger, black or Hispanic, low-income and unmarried and those who have children,” the study said. “Thirty-five percent of all women will have an abortion by age 45.”

High Abortion Rates for Blacks and Hispanics

A 2008 Guttmacher Institute policy paper says, “This much is true: In the United States, the abortion rate for black women is almost five times that for white women.” The paper says that Hispanics have a higher abortion rate as well — double that of whites. “The variation in abortion rates across racial and ethnic groups relates directly to the variation in the unintended pregnancy rates across those same groups,” the report says.

Fertility rates are highest among minorities, and this may account for higher abortion rates. Hispanic women of 15-44 years old have the highest rate, at 99 births per one thousand women. Blacks have the next highest, at 67, and whites the lowest, with 58 per thousand, according to Child Trends Databank PDF, which cites figures of the U.S. Census bureau.

Women in Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, N. Riverside, Forest Park, La Grange and other Chicago-area suburbs in Illinois can better prepare themselves to make a decision with regard to abortion by calling WomanCare Services in Berwyn at 708-795-6000.




Abortion and Birth Control News is a project of TreeFrogClick, Inc. President, Kevin J. Banet