Abortions Down 23%
Winston Salem Journal
February 15, 2002
Charlotte, NC -- Abortion rates have dropped dramatically across North Carolina since 1990. The number of abortions performed in the state dropped by 23 percent - from 34,565 in 1990 to 26,612 in 2000, according to the N.C. Center for Health Statistics.
Barbara Holt, president of North Carolina Right to Life, says revoking taxpayer funding of abortion with state dollars has much to do with the decline. In 1995, more stringent standards were put into place regarding who could access the $50,000 a year available to help women pay the cost of abortions, including limiting the fund to women who have been the victims of rape or incest or where the pregnancy would endanger the life of the mother.
Since the new pro-life standards were adopted, no one has used the money, state officials said.
A study by Philip Cook, a professor of public policy at Duke University, showed that the availability of money in the fund had a large effect on whether women had abortions. Between 1980 and 1994, the fund ran out of money before the end of the year five times.
"During the on-again, off-again time, we found that the number of abortions fell when the funding was not available," Cook said. For every three women who would have used the fund to pay for an abortion, two found other ways of paying, Cook said. The third woman delivered a baby instead of getting an abortion.
Another reason for the decline might be the debate surrounding partial-birth abortions in the mid-1990s, Holt said.
"Heightened awareness of partial-birth abortion has really drawn the focus in on just what happens during an abortion, and turns the mind toward the unborn child," she said. "(People told me) if that's what it means to be pro-choice, then I'm not," Holt said. "So that might impact women who might be contemplating abortion."
Fewer abortion facilities could be another reason for the decrease. In North Carolina, the number of places performing abortions decreased from 114 in 1982 to 59 in 1996.