Abortion in the United States, 1977-1978

Abstract

There were 1.32 million legal abortions in the United States in 1977 and a projected 1.37 million in 1978, an increase of four percent between 1977 and 1978 compared with one of 12 percent between 1976 and 1977. In 1978, 29 percent of pregnant women chose to terminate their pregnancies by abortion. Almost three percent of U.S. women of reproductive age obtained an abortion in 1978. From 1967 through 1978, approximately six million women obtained almost eight million legal abortions; about one in eight U.S. women of reproductive age has had a legal abortion. The number of hospitals reporting that they provided abortion services dropped slightly from 1,695 in 1976 to 1,661 in 1977, but the number of nonhospital abortion clinics increased from 448 to 522, and the number of physicians who reported performing abortions in their offices grew from 424 to 533. Between 1976 and 1977, the average number of abortions per hospital facility decreased from 246 to 237, while the average number per nonhospital provider increased from 875 to 879. The percentage of abortions performed in hospitals declined from 35 in 1976 to 30 in 1977, while the percentage reported by free-standing clinics increased from 61 to 66; the percentage performed in physicians' offices remained at four. Ninety-five percent of abortions in 1977 occurred in metropolitan areas, where 75 percent of the women in need of abortion services live. In 1977, there were identified abortion providers in only 23 percent of U.S. counties. Nine percent (more than 118,000) of the women who obtained abortions in 1977 had to travel to another state for services, and many traveled to other, often distant, counties in their home states. One in three abortions in 1977 were obtained by teenagers, and three in four were obtained by unmarried women. Twenty-eight percent of the women estimated to be in need of abortion services in 1977, and 26 percent in 1978, were unable to obtain them. In FY 1977, before Hyde amendment restrictions on government financing of abortions for poor women, 133,000 of the estimated 427,000 Medicaid-eligible women in need of publicly funded abortion services were unable to obtain them.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)