Birth and pregnancy rates in the United States are declining in the long term. New data analysis points to one reason: Women are less likely to get pregnant when they don’t want to.
Analysis published on Thursday in the journal Demography Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute estimate the number of pregnancies in the United States (there is no single official count) and examine how women relate to the timing of their pregnancies. In the past, most demographic studies have asked whether the pregnancy was intentional or not, but this approach misses nuances such as a woman’s ambivalence about pregnancy—or the desire to get pregnant sooner or later.
The new analysis, covering the period from 2009 to 2015, found that more women say they got pregnant at the right time. This revealed a decline in the proportion of pregnancies that women did not want or that occurred too early, a shift driven by younger women.
It also found that a significant and growing proportion of women, especially those aged 35 and over, said they were getting pregnant later than they wanted.
“This just reinforces the idea that people have more control over their reproduction, especially at an earlier age,” said Alison Gemmill, a demographer and epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University who studies reproductive health and was not involved in the new study.
It also reflects, she says, “a change in people’s perceptions of when to have children and in norms about the ideal time – when we settle down, when I have a career.”
The new data is one of the clearest indicators that fertility decline during the Great Recession was not just a temporary delay, since often in times of crisis. Instead, it appears to have coincided with a broader change in women’s desires and increased access to contraceptives.
The analysis combined reports and surveys from the National Center for Health Statistics; abortion data from Guttmacher; and estimates of the total number of pregnancies and miscarriages.
The data comes from two seismic events that affected fertility: a pandemic followed by the Dobbs decision, which ended the nationwide right to abortion. It is unclear what long-term changes they will bring. There is early evidence that at the start of the pandemic, many people delayed pregnancy. The rate of unwanted or mistimed births could also increase in states with new abortion bans.
The United States has long had one of the highest rates unplanned pregnancy in the industrialized world. he has down 23 percent over the past three decades and 46 percent pregnancies are currently unintended. In Western Europe, by comparison, 36 percent are unintentional, and this figure has not changed much.
The new analysis shows that during the study period, American women quickly gained more autonomy in family planning and, because of this, became less likely to have abortions.
The data show that “much fewer people got pregnant in 2015 than in 2009 and that abortion rates fell because people didn’t get pregnant, not because their pregnancies continued until delivery rather than abortion,” the authors write. articles. Guttmacher researchers Kathryn Kost, Mia Zolna and Rachel Murro.
In 2015, just under a quarter of women said they got pregnant too early, down 18 percent from 2009. This decline was due to the fact that younger women had significantly fewer unwanted pregnancies.
During this period, contraceptives became more widely available, largely due to a provision in the Affordable Care Act requiring them to be free for patients. Studies have shown a significant increase in the proportion of women using more effective long-acting reversible contraceptives such as the IUD. A program in Colorado to provide free long-term contraceptives has led to a 40 percent decline in teenage and young adult births.
There is also evidence that young people have less sexperhaps because they communicate more online and are generally less risky.
Fertility rates are increasing among the oldest childbearing women between the ages of 35 and 44, and in some ways, the researchers say, this indicates that women have more control over the timing of their pregnancies. Highly educated women delay pregnancy until they are educated and start their careers, and more recently this has become common among women of all levels of education.
However, the analysis also reveals something new: many women over 35 get pregnant later than they want. The proportion of those who said so increased by 84%, while the proportion of those who said they happened around the right time decreased by 26%. (New data does not include women, never got pregnant.)
The researchers wrote that this may be because they face fertility issues at an older age and suggest “a substantial and growing unmet need for fertility services.”
According to the researchers, this could also indicate that for some, family planning was driven by financial uncertainty — they may have been waiting to conceive until they found their financial footing, but would like it to happen sooner. This may mean that, looking back, they regretted waiting. Or it could mean that more women are having trouble finding the right partners.
“Seeing it increase, we started to think it wasn’t just the difficulty of getting pregnant at an older age,” said Ms Kost, who has a Ph.D. in sociology and is director of internal research at Guttmacher. “We are also interested in the extent to which this reflects the economic constraints and realities in which people live, as well as the growing burden that people experience in relation to the ability to have families in the desired time frame.”
Just weeks after the North Carolina Democrat suddenly switched parties, giving the Republican Party veto power against the Democratic governor. Roy Cooper. On Wednesday, Republicans at State House unveiled a 12-week ban on abortion. Abortion ban advocates have constantly tried to restrict abortion in the Southern state since it became a nursing haven after federal protection against abortion was reiterated last year, and the proposed abortion ban now has a very real chance of becoming law.
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill on Wednesday afternoon, while the Senate is likely to vote on Thursday. The ban may affect the governor. Roy Cooper’s desktop (D) is tomorrow. Republicans say they have the votes to pass the ban, but since all negotiations are taking place behind closed doors, it’s unclear how many or which lawmakers will actually vote to pass the 12-week ban.
Currently, abortion is available up to 20 weeks of pregnancy in North Carolina. Since federal protection against abortion was reiterated last year, about a dozen states in the South and Midwest have imposed near-total abortion bans, forcing North Carolina to accept an influx of patients traveling out of state for treatment. In Tar Heel State 37% increase abortions since the fall of Row, the largest percentage increase in any state.
The Republicans behind the bill were behind the scenes but resourceful in their push to ban abortion. Instead of promulgating an entirely new bill—the traditional way to get any piece of legislation into Parliament—Republicans quietly removed the 46-page restriction on abortion in another irrelevant piece of legislation. Lawmakers added it to the conference committee report, allowing Republicans to bypass the traditional committee process and go straight to the vote.
“The draft bill represents common sense and a prudent approach to restricting second and third trimester abortions,” Republican State Senate leader Phil Berger said at a news conference Tuesday night.
However, the Democrats were furious. “The Republican leadership has once again schemed behind closed doors and silenced the voices of both members of the public and members of the state legislature to impose a ban on harmful abortions on us,” said Democratic leaders Senator Dan Blue and Rep. Robert. saves says in a press release.
“North Carolinas believe in freedom, including the freedom to decide whether and when to start a family. Republican Party of North Carolina believes[s] in accumulating one’s own power by any means necessary, including by putting lives in danger.”
Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue, left, speaks as House Minority Leader Robert Reeves listens to a press conference at the Legislative Building in Raleigh, February 7, 2022.
Legislation aims to ban abortion after 12 weeks except for rape and incest until 20 weeks of gestation and an exception for fatal fetal anomalies up to 24 weeks. The bill also includes an exception for the life of a pregnant woman and clarifies that the removal of an ectopic pregnancy is not defined as an elective abortion.
The bill requires that any abortion after the 12-week period, with exceptions, must be done in a hospital. It’s worth noting that exceptions to the abortion ban often don’t work in practice, and sometimes anti-option lawmakers make extreme bills more reasonable.
Cooper vetoed several anti-abortion laws that were sent to him by the Republican majority in the state legislature, and many expect him to veto that ban as well.
“This proposal further undermines the freedom of women and their doctors to make highly personal decisions about their health,” Cooper said. tweeted on Tuesday evening. “I, like most people in North Carolina, are dismayed by Republican politicians’ excessive intrusion into people’s privacy, and I am strongly against it.”
Sudden Appearance of Rep. Trisha Cotham party switch made it possible to pass the law. Cotham has campaigned for abortion rights throughout her time in the legislature and earlier this year. co-sponsored the bill codify abortion protection along with their then Democratic colleagues. Ever since she moved to the party, Kotham speaks she is ready to accept restrictions on abortion.
Republican lawmakers unveiled a plan for a 12-week ban Tuesday night. surprise press conference, led by several Republican women. Several Republicans called the proposal “mainstream” and a women-centered approach.
“This bill is mentioned in an overnight conference report… I just don’t believe that this is how democracy is supposed to work.” — Reeves. said during the discussion of the bill on Wednesday morning.
“This is a tactic that really undermines the democratic process.”
– Suzanne Birdsong, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic
This deceptive anti-choice tactic is not new to the anti-abortion movement in North Carolina and across the country, said Suzanne Birdsong, vice president of compliance and general counsel for Planned Parenthood in the South Atlantic.
“In North Carolina, they have long used tactics to limit public debate and participation in such bills because they understand that they will face public outrage, and they want to limit this as much as possible. Actions like this are not unprecedented for them,” Birdsong said, pointing to the 2013 motorcycle safety bill that the North Carolina legislature quietly gutted and turned into an anti-abortion bill.
Abortion bans like the one currently being debated by North Carolina legislators have had dire consequences in other states. Pregnant people living in states with near-total bans or restrictions on abortion are forced to travel outside the state to receive medical care. Women with fewer resources and money were forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term. Expensive another dangerous feat in the USA
Extreme restrictions on abortion have created deserts for childbirth in the rural areas of the country. doctors left their home states for states that support the right to abortion, where the threat of criminalization does not prevent them from offering standard medical care. States that introduced abortion bans last year saw a 10.5% decline in the number of OB/GYN residents, according to new data from the Association of American Medical Colleges.
“These decisions should be made by us, not politicians,” he said. Jenna Beckham, an ob/gyn in North Carolina, said during a public debate on the bill on Wednesday.
Similar restrictions on abortion have not recently been adopted in South Carolina and Nebraska.
“This is a tactic that really undermines the democratic process,” Birdsong said. “The whole point of the legislative process is supposed to be that the bills are tested and that people have a lot of opportunities to weigh, to look at the wording, to think about the actual impact.”
“The process is missing any of those feedback points, which makes the bill really dangerous.”
A Martinez from NR is talking to Jack Lew, chief of staff and later secretary of the treasury under President Obama. In 2013, he saw with his own eyes how the president and Congress can fight for political gain.
Rep. Matt Goetz said he is bringing charges against a Florida woman who allegedly threw a drink at him over the weekend while he was attending an event in his home area.
The Walton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Tuesday that Selena Chambers, 41, of Tallahassee, was charged with battery of an elected official, a felony, and simple battery, a misdemeanor, after she threw a drink at a Florida Republican and yelled at his obscenity address.
Gaetz said the incident happened while he and his wife were at the South Walton Beach Wine and Food Festival on Saturday.
“We were taking pictures and having polite conversations, and while I was chatting with one gentleman, a woman poured a drink on both of us and was immediately arrested,” Gaetz said Tuesday on his Firebrand with Matt Gaetz podcast.
According to the sheriff’s office, Chambers was held on $1,000 bail and released the next day. She told arriving officers that she tripped and spilled her drink on Gaetz, but admitted that she recognized the congressman, according to a police report.
