Number Of Abortions

When it comes to discussions about health, especially ones about such polarizing topics as abortion, it's always best to base opinions and beliefs on actual facts. So, here are a few of these facts. I hope you'll find them useful.

In 1999, the total number of induced legal abortions performed in the U.S. was 861,789. Of these:

-- 88% were performed before 13 weeks
-- 4.3% between 16-20 weeks
-- 1.5% were obtained at or over 21 weeks (This 1.5% has been relatively constant from 1972 to 1999.)

-- ~0.08% were performed after 24 weeks (Of these, most are non-elective, done for maternal or fetal indications.)

I don't have the exact number for elective terminations after 24 weeks, however, I can offer an educated guess. If we use the total number of abortions for 2000 (1.31 million), that comes out to 1,048 procedures done after 24 weeks. Going with a high estimate (say, half of all post 24 weeks procedures are elective), we get 524 elective terminations/year performed after 24 weeks.

UPDATE: Welcome Mr. Simon's readers.

UPDATE 2: Welcome visitors from Noli Irritare Leones.