Previous Live Births and Abortions
Data from the 40 areas that reported the number of previous live births for women who obtained abortions in 2015 indicate that 40.7%, 45.1%, and 14.2% of these women had zero, one or two, or three or more previous live births, respectively (Table 16). Among the 35 reporting areas***** that provided these data for the relevant years of comparison (2006 versus 2015, 2006 versus 2010, 2011 versus 2015, and 2014 versus 2015), the percentage of women obtaining abortions with no previous live births was stable; by contrast, the percentage decreased 3% for women who had one or two previous live births and increased 13% for women with three or more previous live births. Among the areas included in this comparison, 40.6%, 46.6%, and 12.8% of women had zero, one to two, or three or more previous live births, respectively, in 2006; by comparison 40.6%, 45.0%, and 14.4% of women had zero, one or two, or three or more previous live births, respectively, in 2015.
Data from the 39 areas that reported the number of previous abortions for women who obtained abortions in 2015 indicate that the majority (56.3%) had no previous abortions, 35.4% had one or two previous abortions, and 8.2% had three or more previous abortions (Table 17). Among the 35 reporting areas††††† that provided data for the relevant years of comparison (2006 versus 2015, 2006 versus 2010, 2011 versus 2015, and 2014 versus 2015), the percentage of women who had no previous abortions increased minimally (from 55.6% to 56.0%), whereas there was a 3% decrease for women who had one or two previous abortions and a 9% increase for women who had three or more previous abortions from 2006 to 2015. However, the percentage of women who had no previous abortions decreased 1% from 2006 to 2010 (from 55.6% to 54.8%) and then increased 4% from 2011 to 2015 (from 53.8% to 56.0%). By contrast, the percentage of women who had three or more previous abortions increased 12% from 2006 to 2010 (from 7.8% to 8.7%) then decreased 9% from 2011 to 2015 (from 9.3% to 8.5%). The percentage of women who had one or two previous abortions remained stable from 2006 to 2010 (36.6% to 36.5%) and then decreased 4% from 2011 to 2015 (from 36.9% to 35.5%).