[exDemMom]

One factor listed in the original CDC report is that, as the economy tanked, the use of contraceptives went up. That suggests that a number of women didn’t want the cost of a child OR an abortion.

Another factor is that the use of contraceptives among teens has gone up; at the time of the report, over 60% of sexually active teens were using contraceptives, whereas 10 years before, less than 50% were using them.

I would say these are good trends, and I hope they continue.

I also hypothesize that the willingness to have abortions is largely controlled by genetics; as more of the genes predisposing women to have abortions are removed from the population, the fewer abortions there will be.

[1010RD]

What makes you say that being willing to abort your baby is genetic? Wouldn’t it be just as likely environmental?

[ishmac]

One thing I didn't see mentioned in the report is that abortions have been on a long-term decline for over 20 years. The number of surgical abortions peaked in the late '80's. Since around 1990 the number of surgical abortions have been declining pretty much every year. You can make a graph at the Guttmacher Institute that displays the data here: Guttmacher Institute Data Center. So this may be just the latest entry in a 20-yr trend.

In addition to your comments, one of the posters at the Lifesite link pointed out that teenagers may be forgoing sex in larger numbers because of the high incidence of STD's. They have reached epidemic proportions among the young.