Its the lowest abortion rate recorded since the historic 1973Roev.WadeSupreme Court decision legalized abortion nationwide.
This decline has been happening over time.
So, if not restrictions, whatarethe main drivers in this trend?
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Read on to find out.
Fewer people are getting pregnant overall.
The number of live births in 2018 was around 3.8 million.
When fewer people are getting pregnant overall, there are fewer people who might need abortions.
Its as simple as that.
We can point to a number of potential reasons behind this declining fertility rate.
To round this one out, more people are now using the most effective forms ofbirth controlweve ever had.
This point is so important it deserves some extra exploration.
Contraception is more effective these days.
Thanks to better birth control, fewer people are dealing with unintended pregnancies.
Consequently, fewer abortions are needed.
This is a huge deal because LARCs are an unparalleled form of birth control.
This maysoundcomparable, but perfect pill use can be wildly hard to pull off.
It means taking your pill consistently and correctly every single time.
Science has shown time and time again how much this can affect pregnancy prevention.
As a result, researchers saw a significant reduction in unintended pregnancies compared with national rates.
Self-managed abortions are likely becoming more common.
Make no mistake: Self-managed abortions arent a new phenomenon.
Coat-hanger abortions arent a myth.
Its hard to know exactly how many people are self-managing abortions (or trying to).
In 2017 that number jumped to 18%.
Its worth noting that the Guttmacher study didnt account for self-managed abortion with the aid of telemedicine.
Theres currently such little regulation here that theU.S.
Food and Drug Administrationrecommends people dont make a run at self-manage their abortions for safety reasons.
For this reason, the Guttmacher Institutestudyactually categorized telemedicine abortions as clinic-based procedures.
[Telemedicine abortion] has been a complete game changer, says Dr. Aiken.
People will often take the option thats more convenient in life.
I think online telemedicine models do a really good job of that.
So what does a declining abortion really tell us?
Given everything we explored above, it turns out its a little bit of both.
