State issues report on abortions

The Iowa Department of Public Health has issued its first report on the number of abortions in the state. The Iowa Legislature in 1997 required theDepartment of Health to make an annual report on the number of abortions in the state. That report shows last year that just over 57-hundred women had abortions. That’s approximately ten abortions for every one-thousand live births. The most recent federal data from 1995 shows the national average of 20 abortions per one-thousand live births. Women age 20 to 34 had the majority of the abortions at 65-percent. Teens age 15 to 19 accounted for 24-percent of the abortions. The report says 452 women traveled out of stateto get an abortion.