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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Utah's abortion rates are at the lowest level since 1999, according to a recent study by the state Department of Health, and experts say the decline can be attributed to lower birth rates and better education.
The report released this week found Utah residents had 3,270 abortions performed in 2009, the latest figures available. The state reached its highest rate in the last 30 years in 1990 with 4,159 abortions.
Experts attribute the decline to low birth rates and the implementation of family planning services. Nationwide, the number of abortions also has largely declined for the past decade.
We're reaching out to low-income women and providing information packages in an effort to lower abortion rates.
–Lois Bloebaum
While Utah has one of the highest birth rates in the country, the state still has some of the lowest abortion rates with 5.3 abortions per 1,000 women in 2009 -- the lowest for the state since 1980. The national rate in 2008, the latest figures available, was 19.6 for every 1,000 women.
Utah has four clinics that provide elective abortions, all are in Salt Lake County. Of those, only one is licensed by the Health Department to provide second-trimester abortions.
Lois Bloebaum, manager of the agency's Maternal & Infant Health Program, attributes the results to a decline in birthrates and campaigns to educate women about family planning, contraceptives, fertility and healthy pregnancies.
"We're reaching out to low-income women and providing information packages in an effort to lower abortion rates," Bloebaum said Thursday.
She said the state also received about $500,000 from the federal government for the next five years to use toward teen pregnancy prevention.
But the decline in Utah may not last long, said William Adams, a doctor at the Mountain View Women's clinic, one of the four facilities that provide elective abortions.
Although the clinic saw a decline in abortions in 2008 and 2009 -- with 700 and 717 respectively -- the number went back up in 2010 to 773 and has remained high in 2011, Adams said.
"Our statistics have fluctuated over the past decade, so it's hard to attribute the decline to one reason or another," Adams said. "We saw a decline two years ago partially due to the financial crisis and some people not being able to afford raising a child. But the recent changes are not so big that we see a pattern developing."
Karrie Galloway, director of Planned Parenthood Association of Utah, said the numbers don't mean the state should skimp on funding for family planning and education.
She said recent concerns by the Utah State Board of Education over a Planned Parenthood maturation program in Utah elementary schools is one hurdle to they face to educating teens from a young age.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
