Abortion surveillance -- United States, 2014

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.Period Covered: 2014.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). The reporting areas provide this information voluntarily. For 2014, data were received from 49 reporting areas. For trend analysis, abortion data were evaluated from 48 areas that reported data every year during 2005\u20132014. Census and natality data, respectively, were used to calculate abortion rates (number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15\u201344 years) and ratios (number of abortions per 1,000 live births).Results: A total of 652,639 abortions were reported to CDC for 2014. Of these abortions, 98.4% were from the 48 reporting areas that provided data every year during 2005\u20132014. Among these 48 reporting areas, the abortion rate for 2014 was 12.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15\u201344 years, and the abortion ratio was 186 abortions per 1,000 live births. From 2013 to 2014, the total number and rate of reported abortions decreased 2%, and the ratio decreased 7%. From 2005 to 2014, the total number, rate, and ratio of reported abortions decreased 21%, 22%, and 21%, respectively. In 2014, all three measures reached their lowest level for the entire period of analysis (2005\u20132014).In 2014 and throughout the period of analysis, women in their 20s accounted for the majority of abortions and had the highest abortion rates; women in their 30s and older accounted for a much smaller percentage of abortions and had lower abortion rates. In 2014, women aged 20\u201324 and 25\u201329 years accounted for 32.2% and 26.7% of all reported abortions, respectively, and had abortion rates of 21.3 and 18.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 20\u201324 and 25\u201329 years, respectively. In contrast, women aged 30\u201334, 35\u201339, and 6540 years accounted for 17.1%, 9.7%, and 3.6% of all reported abortions, respectively, and had abortion rates of 11.9, 7.2, and 2.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 30\u201334 years, 35\u201339 years, and 6540 years, respectively. From 2005 to 2014, the abortion rate decreased among women aged 20\u201324, 25\u201329, 30\u201334, and 35\u201339 years by 27%, 16%, 12%, and 5%, respectively, but increased 4% among women aged 6540 years.In 2014, adolescents aged 13 weeks\u2019 gestation; all other methods were uncommon (