July 12, 2005
TAKING AMERICA BACKWARDS:
Abortions in state hit 30-year low (Maura Lerner, July 13, 2005, Minneapolis Star Tribune)
The number of abortions performed in Minnesota dropped to a 30-year low last year, to 13,788, state health officials reported Tuesday.Posted by Orrin Judd at July 12, 2005 7:56 PMThe annual total dropped below 14,000 for the first time since 1975, down from a high of 19,028 in 1980.
The report, from the Minnesota Department of Health, did not speculate on the reasons for the decline. But it showed that the abortion rate also dropped, to 11.6 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age, the lowest rate since 1975, the first year the state began tracking abortions.
That's because the new generation of abortion-seekers has been largely wiped out by the previous generation of abortion-seekers.
Posted by: obc at July 12, 2005 8:38 PMIt's not clear that this is a positive indicator. If the rate is flat, and the raw number is therefore an indicator of a reduction in the number of pregnancies, it's mixed news. I didn't see pregnancy or birth numbers in the article.
Posted by: Jorge Curioso at July 13, 2005 2:45 AMJorge, if Minnesota is anything like B.C., there is a veritable baby boom going on.
A sister-in-law just had her girl 5 days ago and the tired doctors had delivered 13 babies that day, so far. The hallway sounded the way a baby ward supposed to sound -- loud with screaming!
In my middle-class neighborhood, the average family size seems to be edging toward 4 kids. The only thing holding the number down is some of the families are quite young and one wouldn't expect them to have more than the two kids they have so far.
Everywhere I go in town, the mall, the coffee shops, are full of women carting around growing families. And the mothers are getting younger, too, which means they probably won't just be having the one baby. The parks are filling up with picnicking families on sunny afternoons. They're adding rooms onto the schools.
One friend of mine was bemoaning the fact that his family was small. He only has six kids with a seventh on the way, but his neighbor has 10 and the other has 8 kids.
It all really puts a smile on my face.
Posted by: Randall Voth at July 13, 2005 5:13 AMthe rate isn't.
Posted by: oj at July 13, 2005 7:59 AMRandall: I've noticed that about mothers, too. In the end, though, I had to conclude that it is not that the mothers are getting younger.
Posted by: David Cohen at July 13, 2005 8:26 AMDavid -- ha ha.
But I have noticed that the women around here are starting their families sooner. And, instead of waiting three years for their second child, they're waiting one or two.
I think it's a good sign.
Posted by: Randall Voth at July 13, 2005 8:39 AMWhile I understand Mr. Cohen's point, I think that the mothers I know are getting younger, shifting from late twenties / early thirties to early / mid twenties. For instance, She Who Is Perfect In All Ways had her first child at 30 (as did many of her friends), but her younger cousins are starting at 25.
Posted by: Annoying Old Guy at July 13, 2005 11:14 AM