Abortion surveillance -- United States, 2007

"Problem/Condition: Since 1969, CDC has conducted abortion surveillance to document the number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions in the United States. Reporting Period Covered: 2007. Description of System: Each year, CDC requests abortion data from the central health agencies of 52 reporting areas (the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City). This information is provided voluntarily. For 2007, data were received from 49 reporting areas. For the purpose of trend analysis, data were evaluated from the 45 areas that reported data every year during the preceding decade (1998--2007). Abortion rates (number of abortions per 1,000 women) and ratios (number of abortions per 1,000 live births) were calculated using census and natality data, respectively. Results: A total of 827,609 abortions were reported to CDC for 2007. Among the 45 reporting areas that provided data every year during 1998--2007, a total of 810,582 abortions (97.9% of the total) were reported for 2007; the abortion rate was 16.0 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15--44 years, and the abortion ratio was 231 abortions per 1,000 live births. Compared with 2006, the total number and rate of reported abortions decreased 2%, and the abortion ratio decreased 3%. Reported abortion numbers, rates, and ratios were 6%, 7%, and 14% lower, respectively, in 2007 than in 1998. Women aged 20--29 years accounted for 56.9% of all abortions in 2007 and for the majority of abortions during the entire period of analysis (1998--2007). In 2007, women aged 20--29 years also had the highest abortion rates (29.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 20--24 years and 21.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 25--29 years). Adolescents aged 15--19 years accounted for 16.5% of all abortions in 2007 and had an abortion rate of 14.5 abortions per 1,000 adolescents aged 15--19 years; women aged >_35 years accounted for a smaller percentage (12.0%) of abortions and had lower abortion rates (7.7 abortions per 1,000 women aged 35--39 years and 2.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged >_40 years). During 1998--2007, the abortion rate increased among women aged >_35 years but decreased among adolescents aged _21 weeks' gestation. During 1998--2007, the percentage of abortions performed at _16 weeks' gestation decreased by 13%--14%, and among the abortions performed at 13 weeks' gestation. Among the 62.3% of abortions that were performed at