
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 16, 1994                    TAG: 9406160489 
SECTION: FRONT                     PAGE: A10    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES 
DATELINE: 940616                                 LENGTH: Medium

U.S. ABORTIONS IN '92 FEWEST SINCE 1979

{LEAD} The number of abortions performed in the United States dropped to 1,529,000 in 1992, the lowest level since 1979, according to a newly released study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit group that studies reproductive issues.

And it is not only the number of abortions that has fallen. Both the percentage of pregnancies ending in abortion and the number of abortions for every 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 are at their lowest levels since 1976 - three years after the U.S. Supreme Court, in Roe vs. Wade, established a constitutional right to abortion.

{REST} In 1992, 27.5 percent of pregnancies ended in abortion, compared with about 30 percent in the years from 1979 to 1986. The number of abortions for every 1,000 reproductive-age women was 25.9, compared with 29 from 1979 to 1983.

Stanley K. Henshaw, one of the study's authors, said there were many possible explanations why fewer women were choosing to have abortions, including demographics, changed attitudes toward both single parenting and abortion, wider and more effective contraceptive use and more limited access to abortion.

``We don't have the data to say which reason is most important,'' Henshaw said.

``In most countries, abortion rates rise sharply for several years after abortion is legalized, then stabilize, just as we have seen in the United States. Rates then decline somewhat, particularly if contraceptive use improves. We don't have data after 1992, but my conversations with abortion providers indicate that the decline continues into 1993 and 1994.''

The Guttmacher study, which is based on data from doctors and institutions that provide abortions and from state health departments, did not provide breakdowns by race or ethnicity.

Henshaw said some of the decline could be attributed to a trend among women who are pregnant and unmarried to keep their babies.

``The number of births to unmarried women has increased astoundingly, going up 21 percent between 1988 and 1991,'' he said. ``In those three years, births to unmarried women increased by more than 200,000, while abortions declined by about 60,000.''

Another contributing factor, the study said, is that as the baby-boom generation ages, a higher proportion of women of reproductive age are in the older, less fertile years.

{KEYWORDS} ABORTION STUDY DECREASE by CNB