Number of abortions in the US drop but Planned Parenthood procedures up 250 per cent

The number of abortions in the US is dropping but is still at just over 1 million procedures in a year, according to figures released this week.

That equates to 210 abortion per 1,000 births, or more than 2 for ever 100 live births, and a total since abortion was legalised in the US of 58.5 million, according to figures released by the National Right to Life Committee in their annual State of Abortion report.

The number of abortions performed at Planned Parenthood clinics, though, is up 250 per cent in the same time period, according to Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee. The rate, Tobias added, has remained "relatively steady the last three years," although the numbers have dropped for other services Planned Parenthood provides at its clinics.

"Each one of those abortions is a tragedy, not just because an innocent child died, but because of the lasting impact the abortion itself had on the mothers of those children," Tobias said.

One of the committee's priorities is government defunding of Planned Parenthood. President Barack Obama vetoed a bill that would have eliminated Planned Parenthood's eligibility to receive federal grants.

"This is the first time now that the Congress has actually approved legislation to defund Planned Parenthood," said Douglas Johnson, the committee's legislative director. "The procedural pathway has been set. The only thing lacking now is a pro-life president."

Johnson said the current Congress is "a pro-life Congress." He cited 10 House roll-call votes and four Senate roll-call votes, all of which had garnered a majority of pro-life votes. He added none of the Senate votes met the threshold to override a presidential veto of the defunding measure.

That would apply to a scheduled 26 January vote in the House to override Obama's veto. "That veto is going to be sustained," Johnson predicted.

The State of Abortion report noted that for 2012, the last year for which statistics are available, "more than one in five ... abortions performed at eight weeks gestation or earlier were listed as 'medical' abortions by the CDC." "Medical," the report added, "is code for chemical," frequently "morning-after" drugs.

In the 36 states that report the marital status of women undergoing abortions, "married women accounted for just 14.7 per cent of abortions," the report said, "with 85.3 per cent of aborting women being unmarried."

One exception to the 2012 statistical overview is the number of women dying from a legal abortion, the last year for which statistics are available is 2011. That year, two women died, compared to 10 in 2010. Since the 1973 Supreme Court decisions permitting abortion virtually on demand, 424 women have died in abortions, according to the report.

"We know ultimately we will be successful," Tobias said. "The immutable truth: Killing unborn children is wrong."