Reports Show Arkansas Exporting Abortions to Neighboring States

This week the Arkansas Department of Health released its reports on abortions performed in the state during 2014. We’ve already written about some of the statistics from this year’s reports.

According to the reports, for the first time since 2006 the number of abortions performed in Arkansas went up last year, with 4,273 abortions performed in 2014. That’s an increase of 541 abortions–unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected; despite being on a downward trend, abortion totals fluctuate from year to year.

In reading the report, we noticed something interesting: The number of abortions performed on Arkansans last year (i.e. on women who reside in Arkansas) increased only slightly–from 3,205 in 2013 to 3,332 in 2014–while the number of abortions performed on women from out-of-state increased dramatically–from 527 in 2013 to 941 in 2014.

In other words, much of the increase in abortion in 2014 was due to women from other states obtaining abortions in Arkansas.

What’s more, as we looked at abortion data going back to the year 2000, we discovered that roughly 15% of the abortions performed in Arkansas were actually on women from out-of-state, and 1 in 5 women who had an abortion in Arkansas in 2014 was from out-of-state. Here is the data:

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2014 Fourth-Lowest Year for Abortion in Arkansas Since 1978

A new report from the Arkansas Department of Health this week shows there were 4,273 abortions performed in the state in 2014.

The number of abortions increased in 2014 over 2013 by about 541 abortions. However, much of that increase was the result of women in neighboring states like Tennessee and Mississippi obtaining abortions in Arkansas.

Overall, 2014 was the fourth-lowest year for abortion in Arkansas since 1978.

Ten Lowest Years for Abortion in Arkansas Since 1978

Year Number of Abortions
2013         3,732
2012         3,782
2011         4,033
2014         4,273
2010         4,532
2009         4,580
2004         4,644
2005         4,695
2008         4,789
2007         4,844

Abortion in Arkansas has been on a downward trend since the early 1990’s.

abortion-chart-1973-2014

Since 2000, most abortions in Arkansas have been performed on women ages 20 – 29.

Year <15 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-54
2000 56 1102 1905 1239 640 390 117
2001 54 1130 2046 1301 781 440 147
2002 54 952 1833 1244 681 388 136
2003 52 963 1837 1269 718 377 183
2004 49 835 1461 1084 667 393 151
2006 46 910 1592 1182 665 442 148
2007 39 831 1569 1128 669 456 150
2008 48 818 1532 1137 704 398 145
2009 35 739 1495 1148 642 395 119
2010 28 722 1455 1083 717 392 131
2011 32 583 1337 1003 625 331 121
2012 20 515 1281 878 634 326 128
2013 14 437 1194 980 641 329 137
2014 13 473 1371 1155 729 373 158
Total 540 11010 21908 15831 9513 5430 1971

abortion-arkansas-by-age-2015

Health Department Data Reflects No “Medically Necessary” Abortions in Arkansas

This week the Arkansas Department of Health will release its annual report on abortions performed in Arkansas last year.

The report is the result of state laws like the Woman’s Right to Know Act of 2001 and other pro-life laws. Each annual report provides valuable information about abortion in Arkansas.

Some of the data for 2014 has already been released by the Arkansas Department of Health, and it shows an interesting trend: Since its first standalone report under the Woman’s Right to Know Act in 2010, the Arkansas Department of Health has not indicated a single abortion performed to “avert death or substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” of the mother.

Under the Woman’s Right to Know Act of 2001, doctors must obtain a woman’s informed consent before performing an abortion. That means the woman must be informed about, among other things, the abortion procedure, its risks, and its alternatives.

However, doctors are not required to obtain informed consent for abortions necessary to save the life of the mother or prevent substantial, irreversible damage to the mother’s body–what some call “medically necessary” or “emergency” abortions.

The reason for bypassing the informed consent requirements in these instances is that offering information and obtaining informed consent may jeopardize the woman’s well-being during an emergency. However, since 2010, the Arkansas Department of Health has not recorded a single instance in which the informed consent requirement was bypassed during an abortion.

This is significant for a few reasons. Any time laws related to abortion come up, people often bring up abortions performed to save the life of the mother. Many claim requiring doctors to provide detailed information about abortion could jeopardize a woman’s life during a medical emergency.

Assuming doctors are properly documenting the abortions they perform, these reports from the Arkansas Department Health would seem to indicate one of two things:

Either none of the more than 16,000 abortions performed in Arkansas during the past 5 years were necessary to save the life or health of the mother, or obtaining a woman’s informed consent prior to an abortion is feasible even under emergency circumstances.

You can see the reports from the Arkansas Department of Health below (See Sections 5, 5a, and 5b of each report):