The Guttmacher Institute released the latest data for teen (age 15-19) pregnancy and abortion rates (for the year 2011). Teen abortion and pregnancy rates have dropped to their lowest point in 40 years. Here’s a summary of the data:
- Pregnancies: 553,000 pregnancies (52.4 pregnancies p/ 1,000 teens – approximate 5%), which is 23% lower than 2008 (68.2 pregnancies p/ 1,000 teens). If we consider just 15-17 year old teens, the pregnancy rate is just 26.7.
- Births:3 births p/ 1,000 teens (down from 40.2 in 2008)
- Abortions:5 abortions per 1,000 teens (down from 18.1 in 2008). This is a 69% drop from the peak rate of 44.0 in 1988. The overall percentage of pregnancies that end in abortion dropped from 46% in 1985 to 31% in 2007, and remained the same in 2011. So while the abortion rate dropped since 2007, the percentage of abortions is the same because the pregnancy rate has dropped since 2007.
This is welcome news! You can read the full report here.
Thinking to Believe 
April 15, 2016 at 10:11 am
Jason:
We may extrapolate from this, that
“…..while the abortion rate dropped since 2007, the percentage of abortions is the same because the pregnancy rate has dropped since 2007.”
the reason seems to indicate that less pregnancies is the result of more readily available contraception being used, assuming that more, or as much, sexual activity is taking place since
the population has increased from 2007-301.2 million until 2014-318.9 million, an increase of 17.7 million.(5.7%)
BY comparison
Philippine population has increased from 88.88M-2007 to 100M-2014, in increase of 11.12M (12.5%)——–none to small contraception in use.
Abortion in the Philippines is illegal, or banned by law guided by the decree of the Catholic Church.
The illegality of abortion has not deterred Filipino women from inducing unsafe abortion. It has only made it dangerous for them where estimates in 2012 show that 610,000 women resorted to abortion, over 100,000 women were hospitalized and 3 women die every day due to unsafe abortion complications.
Just compare the numbers between legal abortions in the U.S. and illegal abortions in the Philippines compared to the populations
Philippine Population 2012…………97.100,000
abortions 2012……………………………..610.000
U.S. Population……….2012…………312,780,968
abortions………………..2012……………………………..699,202
WOW is an under-reaction to the gap between a religious country(Phil) population compared to a secular country(USA) population compared to their overall abortion rates for the same period.
Ban the contraception ban and the Philippine abortion rate will be cut exponentially and I am not a Prophet.
Furthermore this is a poignant follow up to your “in a perfect world scenario” in Post: The move to normalize incest.
Most of us are guilty to some extent of seeing only the side we want to see even though we both wish for a perfect world….most often we disagree on the processes necessary to accomplish that perfect world so let’s not become too upset and frustrated over the process as the words from
Isaiah 1:18-20 admonish:
18-20
“Come. Sit down. Let’s reason this out.”
“If our sins are blood-red,
they’ll be snow-white.
If they’re red like crimson,
they’ll be like wool.
If we willingly obey,
we’ll feast like kings.
But if we’re willful and stubborn,
we’ll die like dogs.”
Take care and be of good cheer, we are not enemies.
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
(that is, prepared to meet the challenge in your time of need)
Leo
LikeLike
April 17, 2016 at 12:02 pm
Jason:
I’d like to pose a couple of hardball questions regarding abortion; in particular, selective abortions,
FOR GENDER; such as aborting females because males are preferred on the one hand by the family; and on the other hand, because societal values will cause undo suffering to the female because of the harsh discrimination she will face if she is born, a double discrimination in countries like India;
and, selective abortions based on genetic diseases or afflictions such as cleft palate/lip which is prevalent enough to be a reason of record for having an abortion or the financial ability to pay surgery reparation.
FOR DISEASE; for example, a disability like Down Syndrome; or, a genetic defect that will cause the baby to die within hours or days of being birthed and which genetic defects cannot be reversed by medical intervention at this time.
FOR HOMOSEXUALITY; Now it also arises that scientists are looking for the “gay gene”. So, If a gay gene is found in the fetus genome but the reversal eludes the medical community at this time, would homosexuality be a reason to allow an abortion; on the one hand, from a religious perspective; or on the other hand, allowed because of the terrible suffering they will be subjected to in this world in which 77 countries ban or make it illegal, being gay or to practice a gay lifestyle, on pain of prison or death as punishment.
Would abortion be allowed for personal, religious purposes or at least in the case where the gay child will be killed when it is known that they are gay?
Which would be worse, death before birth or death after birth?
There are no easy answers here, even without touching upon the Woman’s Reproductive Right of Choice as a cop-out or as a take-on issue as the case may be to address or avoid the subject.
LikeLike
April 19, 2016 at 5:10 am
Inquisitor – I’m confused with your post #2. Surely there is no (that is none, zero, nil, ziltch) acceptable reason for abortion since it is killing a human being with a 100% chance of death. So I think that answers your post quite easily or have I mis-read it?
LikeLike
April 19, 2016 at 5:12 am
I think post #1 is an interesting point – it would be interesting to see how many abortions occur within marriage in the Phillipines as that would be a good indicator of the use of contraceptives within the marriage. On the other hand, could it be a lack of education?
LikeLike
April 19, 2016 at 9:22 am
scottspeig:
The point I am making is to show some various reasons that people use to justify abortion; the two most extreme cases in point is the abortion of a baby who has an irremediable genetic disease whereby the baby cannot survive outside the womb for more than a few days or hours at best. That justification maybe okay in an early pregnancy but if not then why should a woman carry the genetically defective baby to term only to have the baby aborted hours after delivery? So the reason for posing the question is ask what the justification for prolonging the agony of the family when the inevitable is assumed from the data?
The other extreme would be homosexuality. In so called Christian countries such as the West, the religious community majority will rail against irremediable homosexuals all their lives, because it is such a horrible affliction in their eyes. Therefore I ask, which is the lessor of two evils, aborted in the womb or waiting for the birth and then kill it because it has the gay gene? Which to me is the way the religious community treat gay people, passing laws to refuse them service, refuse them medical care; discrimination, actually assaulting them physically; in other words, killing them slowly, just short of the direct noose around their neck from the time they are born. Is it preferable to allow the baby to be born and then treat s/he like filthy rags after birth. Is one form, abortion, Christian love and the other form, killing them slowly, God’s wrath?
That’s the kind of justification I am asking comment on and the reason for posing the series of examples how many people, for so called religious reasons, justify their positions. So your statement:
“Surely there is no (that is none, zero, nil, ziltch) acceptable reason for abortion since it is killing a human being.” does not answer the various examples noted with any specificity just a general yes or no survey-type answer.
Personally I am against abortion and have reasons why I can justify a stand against abortion in every case but there are people in some religious countries who may not allow abortions, yet wait in the delivery room for the gay baby birth, holding a noose in their hand to put around the neck of the baby to string it up in the public gallows for the world to see how wrong homosexuality is in their religious eyes while saying, “This is the land of God”.
LikeLike
April 19, 2016 at 9:32 am
scottspeig:
I can’t see the education connection because the education Philippine people are subjected to: the Catholic church can excommunicate you, religious community peers will ostracize you as a God Rebel and the government can jail you for “breaking the law”.
I think separation of Church and State would be a good start because the church model is made supreme as the government follows Catholic Decrees and Teachings and puts them, in practice, by putting it into law, like in the old “Vatican Rules the Country” days of Galileo and Innocent Popes!
LikeLike
April 19, 2016 at 1:32 pm
Manila…Jan 2015…….Catholic leaders battle against free birth control in the Philippines.
The path to free family planning services for the poor wasn’t an easy one. Fierce opposition from influential Catholic Church leaders, who have long played a major role in politics, resulted in a bitter 14-year battle in Congress.
Even after lawmakers passed the bill in 2012, church groups filed petitions questioning the measure’s constitutionality, sending the debate to the Supreme Court. Last year, the Supreme Court upheld the legislation and the bill became law.
The Catholic Church still opposes it.
Pope Francis visited the Philippines:
“Some think, excuse me if I use the word, that in order to be good Catholics, we have to be like rabbits — but no,” he said.
Politicians who opposed the reproductive health bill have demanded proof that each contraceptive on the market is not an abortifacient, meaning it doesn’t terminate a pregnancy, and has full approval from the Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines.
Former mayor of Manila Lito Atienza — now a congressman — says his Catholic faith dictates his views on the issue.
“Valuing life is a golden value of the Filipino mindset. The contraceptive mentality is not correct. The life that is conceived in a woman’s womb is a creation of the Almighty,” he said. “Allow your reproductive system to function naturally and don’t meddle with it, and you’ll have good health, as a woman and as a mother.”
Source: http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-01-22/catholic-leaders-battle-against-free-birth-control-philippines
LikeLike
April 21, 2016 at 11:46 pm
You don’t kill a baby just because it has a disease anymore than you kill your parent because they are dying of cancer.
And no, if there was such a thing as a gay gene, and it could be identified prior to birth, you don’t kill the baby. If we killed every baby with a predisposition to sin, we would kill every baby.
LikeLike
April 26, 2016 at 5:23 am
Jason answered for me.
LikeLike