Race/Ethnicity
Among the 30 areas that reported cross-classified race/ethnicity data for 2015, non-Hispanic white women and non-Hispanic black women accounted for the largest percentages of all abortions (36.9% and 36.0%, respectively), and Hispanic women and non-Hispanic women in the other race category accounted for smaller percentages (18.5% and 8.7%, respectively) (Table 12). Non-Hispanic white women had the lowest abortion rate (6.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years) and ratio (111 abortions per 1,000 live births) and non-Hispanic black women had the highest abortion rate (25.1 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years) and ratio (390 abortions per 1,000 live births). Data for 2015 also are reported separately by race and by ethnicity (Tables 13 and 14).
Among the 20 areas§§§§ that reported by race/ethnicity for 2007, 2010, 2011, 2014, and 2015, abortion rates decreased substantially for the three largest race/ethnicity groups: for non-Hispanic white women, the abortion rate decreased 30% (from 9.4 abortions per 1,000 women in 2007 to 6.6 in 2015), for non-Hispanic black women it decreased 29% (from 36.5 abortions per 1,000 women in 2007 to 25.8 in 2015), and for Hispanic women it decreased 45% (from 21.0 abortions per 1,000 women in 2007 to 11.6 in 2015). For women in the three largest race/ethnicity groups, abortion rates decreased both from 2007 to 2010 and from 2011 to 2015, although the decreases were greater during the later period. From 2007 to 2010, the abortion rates decreased 10% for non-Hispanic white women (from 9.4 to 8.5 abortions per 1,000), 4% for non-Hispanic black women (from 36.5 to 34.9 abortions per 1,000), and 10% for Hispanic women (from 21.0 to 19.0 abortions per 1,000); by contrast, from 2011 to 2015, the abortion rates decreased 19% for non-Hispanic white women (from 8.1 to 6.6 abortions per 1,000), 20% for non-Hispanic black women (from 32.3 to 25.8 abortions per 1,000), and 31% for Hispanic women (from 16.9 to 11.6 abortions per 1,000).
Abortion ratios also decreased from 2007 to 2015 for the three largest race/ethnicity groups: for non-Hispanic white women, the abortion ratio decreased 27% (from 147 abortions per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 108 in 2015), for non-Hispanic black women it decreased 22% (from 514 abortions per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 403 in 2015), and for Hispanic women it decreased 26% (from 205 abortions per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 152 in 2015). From 2007 to 2010, abortion ratios only decreased among non-Hispanic white women (6% from 147 abortion per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 138 in 2010), whereas abortion ratios increased among non-Hispanic black women (3% from 514 abortions per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 531 in 2010) and Hispanic women (8% from 205 abortion per 1,000 live births in 2007 to 222 in 2010). By contrast, from 2011 to 2015, abortion ratios decreased among all women in the three largest race/ethnicity groups. The abortion ratio decreased 18% for non-Hispanic white women (from 132 to 108 abortions per 1,000 live births), 20% for non-Hispanic black women (from 501 to 403 abortions per 1,000 live births), and 28% for Hispanic women (from 211 to 152 abortions per 1,000 live births).