National abortion rates highest among African-American teens

(Special to the NNPA from the Atlanta Daily World) – A new study conducted by the Gutt­macher Institute shows that African-American teen abortion rates are more than twice as high as the national average.

According to the study, the na­tional average is 18 abortions per 1,000 women among 15-19-year olds. The African-American abortion rate is 41 per 1,000 women among that age group, which is four times higher than non-Hispanic whites abortion rate at 10 per 1,000 and twice as high for Hispanics at 20 per 1,000.

The Guttmacher Institute re­vealed in a recent study that black women account for 30 percent of all abortions and African Ameri­cans make up only 13 percent of the total U.S. population.

In a state-by-state study in states with high abortion rates, African-American teen pregnancy had the highest probability of ending in an abortion of any other race.

In New York 67 percent of the time pregnancies among Black teens—excluding miscarriages—ended in an abortion. The study determined New York has the highest teen abortion rate in the country.

So far there has not been a study that has found the direct cause for the high abortion rate among Black teenagers.

“There’s no definitive research that’s actually been able to answer that question. We just do know that African-American women, including African-American teenagers, just have more pregnancies,” said Rachel Jones, a senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute.

Jones did mention that poverty and lack of attention put teen­agers at a high risk for teen pregnancy and could very well be the reason for such high abortion rates among African-American teens.

The Guttmacher Institute figures are from 2008 and are the most recent data available.

This article originally published in the March 25, 2013 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.