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Abortion Demographics Changing

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The Washington Post

Published: September 23, 2008

WASHINGTON - The face of women getting abortions has shifted significantly in the past 30 years, with relatively fewer white childless teenagers and more mothers of color in their 20s and 30s opting to terminate their pregnancies, according to a report.

"There's been a real change in the picture of women who get abortions," said Rachel Jones, a researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, a private nonprofit reproductive research organization.

Jones analyzed annual data between 1974 and 2004.

During that period the proportion of abortions obtained by women under age 20 dropped steadily, falling from 33 percent in 1974 to 17 percent in 2004. For those younger than age 18 it fell from 15 percent of all abortions in 1974 to 6 percent in 2004.

At the same time, the proportion of abortions obtained by women in their 20s rose from 50 percent to 57 percent, and the share for women age 30 and older increased from 18 percent to 27 percent.

In 2004, there were 10.5 abortions per 1,000 white women ages 15 to 44, compared with 28 per 1,000 Hispanic women of that age and 50 per 1,000 black women.

That translates into 1 percent of white women getting an abortion in 2004, compared with 3 percent of Hispanic women and 5 percent of black women. The proportion of all abortions done for white women decreased from 45 percent in 1994 to 34 percent in 2004, while the proportion done for Hispanics increased from 16 percent to 22 percent and the proportion done for black women rose from 35 percent to 37 percent.

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