CDC Releases Texas Abortion Stats

In a timely release, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlights state-specific abortion stats in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Among the findings? There were nearly 81,000 reported abortions in Texas in 2007 — 11 percent of abortions reported nationally. Texas had the 13th-highest rate of women having the procedure that year.  

The statistics were released the day after the House State Affairs Committee moved forward with a bill requiring doctors to perform sonograms on women seeking abortions — showing them the image and playing the heartbeat audibly — at least 24 hours prior to the procedure. The Senate passed a less stringent version of the measure last week. 

Here's a by-the-numbers abortion breakdown for 2007, the last year recorded.

• For every 1,000 Texas women between the ages of 15 and 44, 15.3 had an abortion.
• For every 1,000 live births in Texas, there were 191 abortions.
• 60 percent of Texas women having abortions were between the ages of 20 and 29. Just 0.2 percent were under 15.
• About 10,500 of the abortions were performed on women ages 15 to 19.  
• The overwhelming majority of abortions — 71.3 percent — occurred when the gestational age was under 8 weeks.
• 38 percent of abortions were performed on Hispanic women, 34.1 percent on white women and 23.3 on black women.
• Nearly 80 percent of women who had abortions were unmarried; 20 percent were married.
• 38 percent of women having abortions had never had a child; 4.6 percent had four or more previous live births.
• 57 percent of women had never had a previous abortion; 5.5 percent had experienced three or more previous abortions.