[...] According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2001 black women across the nation had 29 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 years old. The rate for white women in that age group was 10 per 1,000.
One caveat: The federal numbers do not include all states because several, including California, did not report abortion data in 2001, and some states that did report total figures did not break numbers down by race. Overall, more white women get abortions, but when factored according to percentage of population, abortion rates are higher for black women. [...]
[...] Some abortion-rights advocates say the abortion rate is more a symptom of other societal issues that need to be addressed. The majority of all women who have abortions are unmarried. Many are low-income and many have other children already.
While numbers of abortions have stabilized or decreased in recent years, that decline does not hold for some subgroups of women.
"When we saw the rate of decline in abortion, we were all excited," said Karen A. Raschke, president and chief executive officer of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services, gynecological care and family-planning services. That excitement was muted upon closer look at the statistics, she said.
"The lower rate did not apply to poor teens," said Raschke, who noted the rate for poor teens increased substantially."There is not a problem alone of black women having a higher rate of abortion. There is a problem, if we want to describe it as a problem, of people having too early sex, lack of good examples, lack of knowledge about preventing pregnancy, lack of knowledge about whether they are ready to have a child."
Lorraine Cole, president and chief executive officer of the Black Women's Health Imperative, a national organization focused on health education, research and advocacy, also said the abortion data for black women has to be viewed in context.
"One out of every three black women is without health insurance," responded Cole, when asked about the figures. "Without health insurance, many women do not get routine gynecological care or have limited access to prescription birth-control methods which are more reliable. Also, some women have difficulty negotiating condom usage, which is a male-controlled contraceptive method.
Cole said data show black women also have higher childbirth-related death rates and higher rates of reproductive cancers such as cervical and ovarian cancers -- other issues that reflect a "reproductive health crisis," she said.
"The statistics . . . also speak to the need for comprehensive sex education that includes discussion of the full range of contraceptive options," Cole said.
"The abortion rate is directly proportional to the rate of unintended pregnancies among both black women and white women. So, it can be addressed largely by preventing unintended pregnancies through comprehensive sex education and access to reproductive health care."
Raschke said research shows that black women are more likely than white women to report less-than-perfect use of contraceptive methods. Risk of pregnancy increases when birth-control pills, for instance, are not taken as prescribed. The poorest of the poor women, those with family incomes 300 percent below the poverty level, are more likely not to use birth control at all, Raschke said.
Raschke said she chatted with the medical assistants at Planned Parenthood who see women who come to them for abortions about their sense of how patients feel generally about abortion.
"Women here believe more African-American women are opposed generally and conceptually to abortion, but after they have had two to three children, their protective instincts kick in," Raschke said. "They just can't take care of any more children." [...]
| That's what caught my eye in Tammie Smith's Richmond Times-Dispatch article "Few black voices heard on abortion"
posted in articles on March 3, 2005 2:29 AM | t (0)
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