Maternal Age
Among the 47 areas that reported by maternal age for 2015, women in their 20s accounted for the majority (58.7%) of abortions and had the highest abortion rates (19.9 and 17.9 abortions per 1,000 women aged 20–24 and 25–29 years, respectively) (Figure 2) (Table 3). Women in the youngest (<15 years) and oldest (≥40 years) age groups accounted for the smallest percentages of abortions (0.3% and 3.5%, respectively) and had the lowest abortion rates (0.5 and 2.5 abortions per 1,000 women aged <15 and ≥40 years, respectively). Among the 44 reporting areas that provided data by maternal age every year during 2006–2015, this pattern across age groups was stable, with the majority of abortions and the highest abortion rates occurring among women aged 20–29 years and the lowest percentages of abortions and abortion rates occurring among women in the youngest and oldest age groups (Table 4). From 2006 to 2015, abortion rates decreased among all age groups, although the decreases for adolescents (58% and 54% for adolescents aged <15 and 15–19 years, respectively) were greater than the decreases for women in all older age groups, with decreases for women aged ≥20 years ranging from 4% among women aged ≥40 years to 33% among women aged 20–24 years. Decreases in the abortion rate for all age groups, except women aged 25–29 years, were greater from 2011 to 2015 than from 2006 to 2010, and the rates for all age groups either remained the same or decreased from 2014 to 2015.
In contrast to the percentage of abortions and abortion rates, abortion ratios in 2015 were highest among adolescents aged ≤19 years and lowest among women aged 25–39 years (Figure 2) (Table 3). Among the 44 reporting areas that provided data by maternal age for every year during 2006–2015, abortion ratios decreased among women in all age groups. The abortion ratio decreased for all age groups from 2011 to 2015; from 2006 to 2010, it decreased for women in all age groups, except for those aged <15 and 20–24 years. In addition, for every age group with declines for both periods, the declines that occurred from 2011 to 2015 exceeded the declines from 2006 to 2010. Declines occurred for all age groups from 2014 to 2015 with the exception of women aged 25–29 years
