I started this as a comment but it grew too long, so it is now a diary.
First, thanks are due to Steven for keeping this on the front page. As Booman noted yesterday, there are so many outrages, that it is hard to keep on fighting. The fact that this issue receives priority here is something for which I am very grateful.
I did a little research and found that the Guttmacher Institute is a good source of data. The Institute promotes sexual education and freedom of choice, but its data is considered reliable across the political spectrum. There are some glitches, though. First the data is several years old. Second, some states, like California, do not collect/report data. Nonetheless, this is what they had to say.
Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-four percent of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion.
About half of American women have experienced an unintended pregnancy, and at current rates more than one-third will have had an abortion by age 45.
Black women are almost four times as likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.5 times as likely.
Forty-three percent of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 27% as Catholic.
Two-thirds of all abortions are among never-married women.
Over 60% of abortions are among women who have had one or more children.
The abortion rate among women living below the federal poverty level ($9,570 for a single woman with no children) is more than four times that of women above 300% of the poverty level (44 vs. 10 abortions per 1,000 women
Forty-six percent of women having abortions did not use a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. Of these women, 33% perceived themselves to be at low risk, 32% had concerns about contraceptive methods, 26% had unexpected sex and 1% were forced to have sex.
Eight percent of women having abortions have never used a method of birth control; nonuse is greatest among those who are young, poor, black, Hispanic or less educated.
The number of U.S. abortion providers declined by 11% between 1996 and 2000 (from 2,042 to 1,819). Eighty-seven percent of all U.S. counties lacked an abortion provider in 2000. These counties were home to 34% of all 15-44-year-old women.
We can see institutionalized racism and classicism as well as misogyny at play in the policies of the forced birth crowd. Despite the seven-hundred and twelve thousand outrages we have to attend to each day, this is an issue we really need to keep fighting for.
No woman is chattel. Each is entitled to self-determination and dignity.
