An annual survey of abortion clinics in the United States finds a total of 82 abortion clinics either closed down or reduced abortion services during 2015.
According to Operation Rescue — which conducted a survey of all abortion facilities in the United States from December 1-15, 2015 — specifically 43 surgical abortion clinics had stopped all abortion services and 11 medical abortion clinics had done the same during the past year.
Additionally, 16 abortion clinics stopped surgical abortions and now offer only abortions by medication, and 12 abortion facilities stopped medical abortions and continued only with surgical abortions.
The United States currently has 517 surgical abortion clinics in operation and 213 abortion centers that offer medication abortions — the lowest numbers in decades.
The pro-life group observes that in 1991, 2,176 facilities offered abortions and that, since that year, 81 percent have closed.
Operation Rescue notes as well:
In 2015, 21 new facilities began selling abortions. This includes 7 new surgical abortion clinics and 14 medication clinics that opened or converted from referral offices. Several other abortion facilities reopened after struggling with location issues or having been shut down by the state as unsafe. This represents a net loss for the Abortion Cartel of 9 abortion clinics nationwide and 219 since 2013.
The data from the annual survey corroborates a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that indicates abortion in the United States is at record-low levels. In 2010, the most recent year for which data are available, the number of induced abortions was 1.1 million, a drop from 1.6 million in 1990.
Still another report from the Associated Press (AP) finds the number of abortions has dropped 12 percent since 2010.
While some have claimed the decline in abortions is due to an increase in use of contraception, the CDC and AP data instead show the change is due to fewer women choosing abortion for an unintended pregnancy.
Live Action News observes:
In 2010, 18% of pregnancies ended in abortion compared to live birth. In 2013, this figure had dropped to 16.4%. This decline in abortion rate accounts for 62,755 fewer abortions. Out of a total abortion decline of 86,529, this mean that 72.5% of the decline was driven by a lower percentage of pregnant women choosing abortion.
The Operation Rescue survey also finds the average cost of a first trimester surgical abortion in the United States is $594.74, while the average cost of a medication abortion is $568.50.
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