Definitions
Data on legal induced terminations of pregnancy (ITOPs), or abortions,
are collected by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
(NJDHSS) as required by the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The National
Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a branch of CDC, defines an
induced termination of pregnancy as "the purposeful interruption
of an intrauterine pregnancy with the intention other than to produce
a live-born infant, and which does not result in a live birth. This
definition excludes management of prolonged retention of products of
conception following fetal death."1 CDC defines legal
abortion 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."2
Reporting
In New Jersey, only hospitals and licensed ambulatory care facilities
are mandated to report ITOPs to the State. Private physicians, unlicensed
clinics, and women's centers (broadly defined as a place where women
can receive gynecological services including induced terminations) are
not included in this mandate. Therefore, the number of induced terminations
reported to NJDHSS is approximately half the actual number performed
in the state.3 Additionally, there is no inter-state
exchange system for abortion statistics like there is for birth and
death statistics. Consequently, NJDHSS does not have reports on New
Jersey residents receiving abortion services out of state. Therefore
all abortion data presented by NJDHSS are based on place of occurrence,
not place of residence. Furthermore, the share of the total number
of terminations performed in the state which is reported to NJDHSS is
not stable over time, since facility openings and closings change
the number of institutions required to report.
The potential differences between the characteristics of terminations
reported and those not reported cannot be known with certainty. But
it is probably the case that terminations reported to NJDHSS do not
constitute a random sample of all terminations performed in the state.
Women who have terminations performed in private doctors' offices are
more likely to have private health insurance. Therefore they would be
expected to be somewhat different than women who have terminations performed
in licensed ambulatory facilities in terms of socioeconomic status and
related characteristics. Examination of data for New Jersey and other
states from the CDC's publication "Abortion
Surveillance - United States, 1998" suggest that this may be
the case.4
Data
Below are links to annual ITOP data by age, race, ethnicity, marital
status, previous terminations, and gestational age as reported to NJDHSS.
1991 1992 1993
1994 1995 1996
1997 1998 1999
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Other Sources for Data
The Alan Guttmacher Institute
is a non-profit organization focused on reproductive health issues.
They collect abortion data by directly surveying all known providers
of abortion services and therefore are believed to have more accurate
numbers. Their website includes a discussion of The
Limitations of U.S. Statistics on Abortion as well as estimates
of the number of ITOPs performed.
References
1 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National
Center for Health Statistics. (1998). Handbook on the Reporting of
Induced Termination of Pregnancy. (DHHS Publication No. PHS 98-1117).
Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/hb_itop.pdf
2 http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/datawh/nchsdefs/abortion.htm
3 Henshaw, SK. (1998). Abortion Incidence and Services
in the United States, 1995-1996. Family Planning Perspectives; Vol.
30, No. 6. http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/3026398.html
4 Herndon, J, et. al. Abortion Surveillance---United
States, 1998. In: Surveillance Summaries, June 7, 2002. MMWR 2002;
51(No. SS-3): 1-32. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5103a1.htm
