Women In U.S. Having More 'Unwanted' Pregnancies, Study Says; Reasons For Shift Unknown

Women in the US are having more "unwanted" pregnancies, but it is unknown if the shift indicates a change in views toward abortion, federal researchers said on Monday, the AP/Baltimore Sun reports. The National Center on Health Statistics recently released a 2002 and early 2003 survey that asked 7,643 women ages 15 to 44 questions regarding family planning and reproductive health, including the question, "Right before you became pregnant, did you yourself want to have a baby at any time in the future?" According to Anjani Chandra, lead author of the study, women who responded "no" were categorized as having "unwanted" pregnancies, and women who responded that the pregnancy was sooner than they had wanted were categorized as having "mistimed" pregnancies. According to the survey's parameters, 14% of participants' recent births were defined as "unwanted" at conception. A similar survey in 1995 found that 9% of respondents' recent births were defined as "unwanted" at conception. According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, the surveys are consistent with of the decreasing abortion rate. In 1995, for every 100 pregnancies that ended in either abortion or a birth, 26 ended in abortion. In 2002, 24 of every 100 pregnancies that ended in either abortion or a birth ended in abortion. "The two statistics together suggest -- but don't confirm -- that a greater percentage of unintended pregnancies resulted in births rather than abortions," Lawrence Finer, associate director for domestic research at the institute, said. Finer also said the data might be associated with the drop in the number of abortion providers in the U.S., which fell from 2,400 in 1992 to 1,800 in 2000. At least one antiabortion group said the shift is associated with a change in views on abortion. Susan Wills, associate director for education for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, said the data "sho[w] a real pro-life shift." The Guttmacher Institute currently is conducting a study on unplanned pregnancies in relation to the number of abortions in the U.S. (Stobbe, AP/Baltimore Sun, 12/20).


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