Waiting periods and other restrictions may be the cause of a drop in abortions.
Restrictions on abortion put in place by state legislators throughout the country may account for a drop in surgical abortions in recent years. Waiting periods, counseling and parental permission or notification may be the cause of a downward trend with the procedure since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortions.
Thirty-three states require that women receive counseling before an abortion is performed, according to an Aug. 1 report of the Guttmacher Institute, the research arm of Planned Parenthood. Twenty-three of these states detail the information that a woman must be given.
Twenty-four of these states also require women to wait a specified amount of time — most often 24 hours — between the counseling and the abortion procedure. Seven states require that all counseling be provided in person and that the counseling take place before the waiting period begins, thereby necessitating two separate trips to the facility.
Missouri’s Waiting Period Law
Missouri passed a law recently requiring a 24-hour waiting period before getting an abortion. State Sen. Kevin Engler, who supported the bill, said that it's no coincidence that the number of abortions has declined over the years as legislation has gotten stricter.
“Do you know how many abortion clinics there are in this state?” he said, referring to the two abortion clinics in the state, according to the Columbia Missourian. “And one of them is only open one day a week."
In Illinois, a U.S. Appellate judge on July 14 cleared the way for the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act concerning abortions obtained by minors.
The number of surgical abortions in the country dropped from a high in 1981 from 29 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 to 19 in 2005. In Illinois, the number dropped from a high in 1976 of 29 per 1,000 women to 18 in 2005.
Women in Berwyn, Cicero, Stickney, La Grange, N. Riverside, or other nearby Chicago suburbs who are considering abortion can learn more about the procedure and get a free pregnancy test by calling WomanCare Services at 708-795-6000. Or go to http://www.womancare.org.
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