Newly-released abortion data from the Indiana State Department of Health reveals that Indiana’s abortion rate dropped to a 33-year low in 2010 as a result of a 5% drop in abortions from 2009 to 2010. There were 10,031 unborn children aborted in 2010 which is 526 less than the previous year. The statistics are the most current available from the ISDH.
Indiana’s abortion rate has now dropped over 8% since 2008 and has fallen nearly 40% from Indiana’s highest annual abortion rate of 16,505 in 1980.
While the overall abortion rate is dropping, the 2010 abortion statistics expose a startling rise in the use of chemical abortions in Indiana. According to the 2010 statistics, chemical abortions climbed 35% between 2009 and 2010 accounting for 1,968 abortions. This marks an accelerated spike in chemical abortion rates that have more than doubled since 2005. Nearly one in five abortions in Indiana is now chemically-induced.
“We are pleased that Indiana’s abortion rate continues to fall, but at the same time we know that it’s not falling fast enough for the over ten thousand children who are still dismembered in Indiana abortion clinics and discarded with surgical waste each year,” states Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter. “We are shocked by the rapid increase in the use of chemical abortifacients that are largely unregulated. This as an alarming trend that the Indiana legislature must address.”
Fichter believes the decline in Indiana’s abortion rate is due to a variety of factors, including pro-life policies passed by the Indiana legislature, expanded efforts by Indiana crisis pregnancy centers to provide alternatives to abortion, and a growing awareness of the humanity of the unborn child through technology such as ultrasound. In addition, high school and college students are coming to the pro-life movement in unprecedented numbers and are helping abortion-vulnerable peers to choose life when experiencing a crisis pregnancy. Fichter also notes that the full impact of the sweeping pro-life provisions passed by the Indiana legislature in 2011 will not be reflected in Indiana statistics until the 2012 data is reported.
“We’re on the right track in Indiana,” says Fichter. “This most recent decline will energize and motive Indiana’s pro-life community to work even harder to bring about the day when abortion is a sad and tragic memory of the past.”
Daniel Miller is responsible for nearly all of National Right to Life News' political writing.
With the election of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, Daniel Miller developed a deep obsession with U.S. politics that has never let go of the political scientist. Whether it's the election of Joe Biden, the midterm elections in Congress, the abortion rights debate in the Supreme Court or the mudslinging in the primaries - Daniel Miller is happy to stay up late for you.
Daniel was born and raised in New York. After living in China, working for a news agency and another stint at a major news network, he now lives in Arizona with his two daughters.
