Get "In the Know": Questions About Pregnancy, Contraception and Abortion
RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY
Where do Guttmacher’s abortion data come from?
- Guttmacher’s abortion data are gathered through two national surveys, one of women having abortions and one of facilities that provide abortions.
- The Guttmacher Institute surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 women obtaining abortions in the United States in 2000–2001. This was the third survey of its kind conducted by Guttmacher; the two previous surveys were conducted in 1994–1995 and 1987–1988.
- The Guttmacher Institute also gathered information from all known abortion providers in the United States for 2000. This survey is the 13th of its kind. Providers were first surveyed in 1974, and the most recent survey before the current one obtained data for 1996.
- Data on abortion incidence and the characteristics of women having abortions are also compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from state health department reports.
Why did Guttmacher do this research?
- The survey of women obtaining abortions in the United States is part of a larger research effort aimed at understanding contraceptive failure rates among women experiencing an abortion or unplanned birth, and providing accurate estimates of contraceptive effectiveness and use by various subgroups. The survey of abortion providers was the 13th such Guttmacher survey since 1973, and is the only source of comprehensive national data on abortion incidence and abortion service provision in the United States. The survey also provides information on the geographic distribution and the accessibility of abortion services.
Is this study representative of the whole country?
- The survey of women seeking abortions is based on a nationally representative sample of abortion providers. The survey of abortion providers involves all known abortion providers in the United States, and is the only national source of information on the number, geographic distribution and type of providers (defined as hospitals, clinics and physicians’ offices where abortions are performed). The list of abortion providers is updated regularly using a comprehensive process, and is considered to be complete except for a few small private physician providers. In addition, for the United States as a whole and for most individual states, the Guttmacher provider survey represents the most complete data on the number of abortions performed.
How do Guttmacher data differ from those collected by the CDC?
- The Guttmacher Institute surveys all known abortion providers in the United States. The CDC compiles data on abortion procedures that are submitted by state departments of health; it does not survey service providers. Data from the CDC depend on state reporting requirements and the completeness of reporting by providers to their respective departments of health, which vary from state to state. Four states did not collect or report data on abortion procedures at all in 2000 (Alaska, California, New Hampshire and Oklahoma). (Since then, three of these states have begun collecting data or have stated an intention to do so in the future.) Others undercount the number of abortions performed. As a result, Guttmacher’s data on abortion are more complete than CDC data.
What is known about abortion in the United States before 1973?
- Before 1973, abortion was legal in only a few states. The CDC collected some information on legal abortions from most of these states. Many abortions were illegal, and almost no data on these cases exist. Estimates of the annual number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s range from 200,000 to 1.2 million. ( (45) 45)
This resource was produced with support from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and the Roth Family Foundation.
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