Abortions reach 30 year low

ST. PAUL - The number of abortions in Minnesota dropped to a 30-year low in the first full year after the state passed a 24-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions.

Abortion opponents and supporters of legalized abortion disagreed Tuesday whether the decline could be attributed to the waiting period. The law, which supporters call Women's Right to Know, requires that women receive specific information from their doctor before an abortion.

The number of abortions in 2004 dipped to 13,788, the lowest level since 1975, the first year the state Health Department started tallying the numbers. The department has been reporting annual abortion figures to the Legislature for the past five years.

The number of abortions in the state has been falling since it peaked in 1980 at more than 19,000 -- a curve that mimics a national trend. And the drop transcends shifting demographics: Minnesota's rate of abortions among women in their childbearing years (classified as ages 15 through 44) also has been on the decline.

Since July 2003, state law requires doctors to give women who seek abortions information about medical risks, gestational age of the unborn child, potential fetal pain, subsidized health coverage for childbirth and prenatal and infant care, and child support laws.

For the first time, this year's abortion report also included the number of women -- 15,859 -- who contacted doctors and got the required information about abortion.

That helps calculate a hotly debated number -- more than 2,000 women who sought abortions and apparently didn't go through with them.

Abortion opponents said the 24-hour waiting period helped some of those women change their minds about getting abortions. Abortion rights backers said more data is needed to explain why the women decided against abortion or to show that the number is related to the informed consent law at all.