Sources:  Guttmacher Institute: "Abortion in the United States: Incidence and Access to Services", 2005.

List Notes: Abortion rate is per 1,000 women aged 15-44. Note: Numbers of abortions are rounded to the nearest 10. Data is for the year 2005.

1. According to the Guttmacher Institute abortion is a common experience: At current rates, about one in three American women will have had an abortion by the time she reaches age 45. Moreover, a broad cross section of U.S. women have abortions. 57% of women having abortions are in their 20s; 60% have one or more children; 86% are unmarried; 57% are economically disadvantaged; 88% live in a metropolitan area; and 78% report a religious affiliation. (a.)
2. 41% of women obtaining abortions are white non-Hispanic, 32% are black non-Hispanic, 20% are Hispanic and 7% are of other racial backgrounds. (a.)
3. According to the Guttmacher Institute, abortion is one of the safest surgical procedures for women in the United States. Fewer than 0.5% of women obtaining abortions experience a complication, and the risk of death associated with abortion is about one-tenth that associated with childbirth. (a.)
4. In 2005, 6.3 million of the 62 million American women of reproductive age (15-44) became pregnant. 66% of these pregnancies resulted in live births and 19% in abortions; the remaining 15% ended in miscarriage. Slightly more than one in five pregnancies end in abortion, indicating that unwanted pregnancy is still a common occurrence in the United States. (a.)
5. In New York, 467,200 of the 4,084,946 women of reproductive age became pregnant in 2005. 53% of these pregnancies resulted in live births and 33% in induced abortions. (a.)

Top 5 facts sources:

1. Guttmacher Institute. (2011). "State Facts About Abortion" fact sheet. Retrieved Jan, 2011 from: http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/sfaa.html