Abortions down slightly in Minnesota

By BOB VON STERNBERG, Star Tribune

Last update: July 1, 2009 - 1:25 PM

The number of abortions in Minnesota in 2008 declined for the second straight year, with drops recorded among nearly all ages of women and girls.

According to the annual report by the Minnesota Department of Health, 12,948 abortions were performed last year, 895 fewer than in 2007.

That total is off from a spike that occurred in 2006, a one-time aberration in what had been a steady decline for nearly three decades.

Abortions in the state peaked in 1980, when 19,028 were performed.

The report shows that the abortion rate declined for women of all ages except those 40 and older, which increased slightly.

Among teenagers, the rate continued a decline that first surfaced in the 1990s, but had stalled earlier this decade.

The largest number of abortions -- about a third -- were performed on women between the ages of 20 and 24.

Most abortions were performed on unmarried women and those who were not using contraception at the time they became pregnant, the report found.

Fewer than one-third of women who got abortions were using contraceptives when they got pregnant.

About one in seven women who got abortions were married at the time they got pregnant.

Officials of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Dakotas see the report as "absolutely good news for the health of women across Minnesota," said spokeswoman Kathi Di Nicola. "The best way to sustain those reductions is to continue to provide affordable birth control" and sex education to the state's women.

On the other side of the state's abortion debate, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life (MCCL) also called the statistics good news.

"It is more evidence that women and society in general are turning away from abortion and embracing the life-affirming resources available for both mother and child," executive director Scott Fischbach said in a prepared statement.

He said a 2005 state grant program to assist pregnant women called Positive Alternative contributed to the decline.

This is the 10th annual report compiled by the department, mandated by the legislature in 1998.

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