CDC’s Abortion Surveillance System: FAQs

[The Straight Story]

CDC’s Abortion Surveillance System: FAQs

When did CDC start collecting abortion data?
CDC began abortion surveillance in 1969 to document the number and characteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions. CDC’s surveillance system counts legal induced abortions only.

How does CDC define abortion?
For surveillance purposes, legal abortion is defined as a procedure performed by a licensed physician or someone acting under the supervision of a licensed physician to induce the termination of a pregnancy.

Are states required to report their abortion statistics to CDC?
No, states and areas voluntarily report data to CDC for report preparation. CDC's Division of Reproductive Health prepares surveillance reports as data becomes available. There is no national requirement for data submission or reporting. For more detailed information, we recommend you review the CDC/NCHS document, Handbook on the Reporting of Induced Termination of Pregnancy. pdf logo (PDF–2.5MB) Source: NCHS.

How is the report prepared and formatted?
Preparing the Abortion Surveillance Reports is based on the data available from all states and areas that cooperate in reporting for a given calendar year. In addition, ample time is required to perform the analyses that produce the tables, charts, and the narrative describing trends and methods. Please view the abstract and methods portion of the most recent Abortion Surveillance Report for more information on compilation of the report.

Some states now report the use of medical abortions. These are abortion procedures using medications instead of surgery. Therefore, we adapted our system to include a separate category for medical abortions. The number of states and localities reporting this information is increasing each year. As we receive reliable data on medical abortion, we will provide it in the surveillance reports.

How is the Abortion Surveillance Report used?
We understand the report is used by many in the field of public health. Some have mentioned they use the report to—

* Identify characteristics of women who are at high risk of unintended pregnancy,
* Monitor trends in the number, ratio, and rate of abortions by state or region of the country,
* Compare trends in this nation with those of other countries.

For example, demographers use information in the report to calculate pregnancy rates, which are combined estimates of births and fetal loss. Managers of public health programs use this data to evaluate the programs' effectiveness to prevent unintended pregnancy. There have historically been other data uses; such as, the calculation of the mortality rate of specific abortion procedures. Policymakers and program planners also use these data to improve the health and well-being of women and infants. Surveillance systems such as this one continue to provide data necessary to examine trends in public health.

Can I obtain a public use dataset for my own analysis?
No public use dataset is available. To obtain data for this surveillance system, CDC assures states and areas that we will maintain strict confidentiality of data provided to us. For other data sources and estimates, we suggest using the MEDLINE/PubMed or MedlinePlus bibliographic reference service of the National Library of Medicine.

Abortion Surveillance Reports
Abortion Surveillance—United States, 2005 | adobe PDF logo View PDF 1.3MB
In 2005, 820,151 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas. This total represents a 2.3% decrease from the 839,226 abortions reported for 2004. The abortion ratio for 2005 decreased since 2004. The ratio was 233 legal induced abortions per 1,000 live births in 2005. In 2005, the abortion rate was 15 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years of age, the same since 2000. For the same 46 reporting areas, the abortion rate remained relatively constant during 1998–2005. As in the past, a higher number of abortions were obtained by white women, unmarried women, and women under 25 years of age. More than half (62%) of the reported legal induced abortions were performed during the first 8 weeks of gestation; 88% were performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Source: MMWR 2008;57(SS-13);1–32.

Previous MMWR Abortion Surveillance Reports
2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995 | 1994–1993 1992 | 1991 | 1990 | 1989 | 1988 | 1987– 1986 | 1985–1984 | 1981 1980–1979


http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/Data_Stats/Abortion.htm

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Given all the uproar of late over Oklahoma I was interested in whether or not anyone else collects facts about a medical procedure for detailed analysis.

Seems like it.


http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5713a1.htm?s_cid=ss5713a1_e

[kestrel91316]

1. Yes. This is part of the responsibility of basic PUBLIC HEALTH.

However, note that this data collected by CDC is not published in local newspapers.

Given that CDC data is already undoubtedly available for OK, I see no reason whatsoevr for OK to have its own reporting system. OK public health authorities can get their damned data directly from CDC if they want it so bad.

[The Straight Story]

2. I think it is up to each state to collect data and the cdc pulls it together

And what is wrong with a paper publishing the data if the cdc/govt does so?

We are talking numbers here, not names.

Data is data.

[Lars39]

3. Never lived in a small town, have you.

[The Straight Story]

6. Yes, 5 of them (NT)

[Maru Kitteh]

9. Never been a woman, have you?

You're in no danger so what the fuck? Why worry?

[kestrel91316]

5. CDC doesn't publich local statistics in local newspapers where

people in small towns could figure out who the parties are.

[berni_mccoy]

4. The difference is posting the information to a public website and associating the data with a NAME.

[The Straight Story]

7. I don't think it should be associated with a name either(nt)

[niyad]

8. have you see the list of 37 questions the woman is required to answer--

even if she used plan b or ru486??

http://www.sos.state.ok.us/documents/Legislation/52nd/2009/1R/HB/1595.pdf