Title: Abortion Rates Highest Among Black Teens, Study Shows, But Accuracy May Be Hard To Measure | HuffPost
Headings: Abortion Rates Highest Among Black Teens, Study Shows, But Accuracy May Be Hard To Measure
Abortion Rates Highest Among Black Teens, Study Shows, But Accuracy May Be Hard To Measure
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Content: The reason: Researchers’ methods of tracking abortions are complicated, Slate.com’s L.V. Anderson says. Download
Take the United States, for example, where the CDC collects data from state health agencies, though those agencies aren’t required to report abortion numbers to the CDC. According to Anderson: The CDC encourages agencies to ask abortion providers for the woman’s age, gestational stage, race, ethnicity, abortion type, the woman’s marital status, and the woman’s previous abortions and births, but not every state collects all this information, and some states (California, Delaware, Maryland, and New Hampshire) don’t report abortions to the CDC at all. Anderson does point to the Guttmacher Institute, however, where efforts to collect more-complete data include approaching every known abortion facility nationwide while also taking governmental tallies into consideration. But in places where abortion is illegal, obtaining accurate figures remains a challenge, Anderson goes on to say. In the U.S., all but one state has layered on restrictions to 1973’s Roe vs. Wade decision, ultimately limiting access to abortions for many women. That said, there has not been a study that has found the direct cause for the high abortion rate among black teenagers. Some abortion rights opponents, like the National Black Pro-Life Coalition, an organization seeking to reduce the number of abortions among black teenagers, claim easy access to abortions is the culprit and that abortion providers like Planned Parenthood deliberately place their abortion facilities in areas with large minority populations.