A new report from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows Arkansas’ abortion rate has been cut by more than half since the year 2001.
The abortion rate is calculated as the number of abortions performed in a state for every 1,000 women ages 15 – 44. It’s a way to measure how prevalent abortion is in a state by comparing the total number of abortions to the state’s female population.
In Arkansas’ case, the abortion rate was 11 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 – 44 in 2001.
However, the CDC’s new report shows Arkansas’ abortion rate has fallen to 5.1 as of 2019.
Overall, Arkansas’ abortion rate has been in decline since the 1990s.
The CDC hasn’t released 2020 abortion data yet, but based on statistics the Arkansas Department of Health published last summer, Family Council estimates that Arkansas’ abortion rate may have increased slightly last year — from 5.1 in 2019 to 5.4 in 2020.
Even though Arkansas’ abortion rate may have risen slightly last year, it’s drastically lower than it was in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Slowly but surely Arkansans are winning the fight against abortion.
