This report of a so-called slowing down in the reduction of abortions doesn't square with the actual figures coming from numerous state health departments:

* The number of abortions in Nebraska dropped more than 11 percent from 2004-2005.

* The number of abortions in Tennessee has dropped to its lowest level in almost 30 years. Not since 1977 has the number of annual abortions been this low. The number of abortions in 2004 dropped by more than 1,000, a 6.9 percent decline.

* New figures in November from the Georgia Department of Health reveal the number of abortions is down more than 5 percent. According to health officials, abortions performed in Georgia fell 5.3 percent from 2003's totals.

* The new Pennsylvania figures show a decline of 2.4 percent in 2004.

* Minnesota's abortion numbers are down to their lowest totals since 1975. The Minnesota Department of Health says there were 13,788 abortions reported in 2004, compared to 14,174 in 2003 -- a decrease of nearly three percent.

* New statistics in the state of Illinois show a whopping 10 percent drop in the number of abortions performed last year. They're at the lowest level since Roe.

* The Michigan Department of Community Health reports 26,269 abortions were performed in Michigan during 2004 compared to 29,540 Michigan abortions in 2003, a decrease of 11.1 percent.

* Abortions on women in Washington state are at their lowest points since the state started collecting data in 1980, according to a May 2005 report.

* Also in May 2005, the state of Wisconsin reported that abortion rates there are at their lowest levels since 1974.

* Abortions in Oregon are down to their lowest levels since 1998, having decreased 20 percent between then and 2004.

* Abortions in Kentucky have been steadily dropping for more than a decade with 3,502 in 2002 and 9,590 in 1991.

* Since 1988, abortions have dropped a whopping 53 percent in South Carolina.

* After peaking at 8,814 in 1991, the number of abortions in 2004 in Mississippi fell to just over 3,000.

* Abortions in Kansas are still on the decline, having dropped again for the fourth year in a row. In 2005, abortions there decreased significantly, with a decline of 8 percent from the previous year.

These declines in abortion are good news and they deserve more extensive coverage. They also prove that state laws such as parental involvement and those telling women of abortion's risks and alternatives are working.

For more information on these stats visit LifeNews.com

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Thank you both for following up with the original comment.

The point, as was mentioned, is that abortion rates have slowed to their lowest point in years (declining to an average of only .8% per year between 2000 & 2003 as compared to 3.4% per year in the 1990s) AND that abortions have increased dramatically among lower income women.

The issue here is that abortion rates differ dramatically between particular populations of women. The INCREASING gap between the affluent and the middle/lower income is problematic from a social justice standpoint. Certain groups of women meet many more obstacles when trying to control their reproductive health and lives than do others.

However, it's more than just reproductive planning - we're talking about women's LIVES. The commenter's last sentences creating a causal relationship between decreasing abortion numbers and increasing restrictive abortion laws is plain wrong.

In fact, research shows that liberalization of abortion laws and NOT enacting barriers to abortion access increases women's safety and protects women's lives. More restrictive abortion laws have been shown to have NO bearing on the actual number of abortions being performed in a particular country or region of the world.

In fact, the opposite is true. In countries where abortion is illegal, women obtain abortions at VERY high rates - and in unsafe conditions. Countries which create safe, legal access to abortion have actually lowered the rates of pregnancy-related complications and death and improved the health of women AND their families.

According to Guttmacher, "...abortion levels are quite high in Latin American countries, where abortion is highly restricted. (In fact, 20 million of the 46 million abortions performed annually worldwide occur in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws.) At the same time, abortion rates are quite low throughout Western Europe, where the procedure is legal and widely available."

Barriers to abortion access, more often than not mean delaying abortion until later on in a pregnancy thereby increasing the potential for complications, making it a more difficult procedure and a more costly procedure.

In this country, where the federal government has enacted a law refusing to cover abortions for lower income women, where the need for publicly financed contraception is growing and where women who seek out a safe, legal medical procedure often meet with undue barriers like mandatory waiting periods and husband permission, we see much higher rates of abortion than in almost every other developing nation in the world.

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