About 1.5 million American women have abortions each year. But many common assumptions about who these women are don't always stand up to scrutiny, according to a survey released last week by the Alan Guttmacher Institute in New York.
Catholic women have abortions as frequently as do all women of childbearing age.
Women who work are just as likely to have an abortion as those who do not work. Teenagers are having abortions at a slightly lower rate than they were in 1987. Women ages 18 to 24, who make up 21 percent of the childbearing population, have 44 percent of all abortions. Blacks, who make up 14 percent of all childbearing women, have 31 percent of all abortions. Whites, who account for 81 percent of women of childbearing age, have 61 percent.