Why are there no statistics on fetal age of aborted children?
The furor has died down since US citizens debated whether or not partial-birth abortions were barbaric torture, or necessary medical procedure. The one thing that both sides seemed to agree on was that late-term abortions were rare. As it turns out, not only are they probably not rare, but statistics are being withheld from the American people by the abortion clinics.
Essentially there are two reliable organizations which attempt to gather statistics on abortion. The CDC (which is a federal organization) and the Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI). Both admit they do not have good stats on gestational age.
According to AGI in "The Limitations of US Statistics on Abortion", "Extrapolating from unpublished data for 14 states compiled by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), it is possible to estimate that two-thirds of these abortions were performed at 21-22 weeks. After 26 weeks, the number of abortions nationwide is estimated at 320; given the uncertainty of the data, however, the number could be as high as 600."
That's a huge discrepency. In fact, they are admitting that there may be twice as many late-term abortions taking place as estimated. And note only 14 states are submitting the information.
AGI goes on to say:"Either way, these estimates must be viewed as tentative. One uncertainty stems from the limited number of states on which the estimates are based, since these states may not be representative of the nation as a whole and their reported data may be incomplete. In addition, because the number of providers who perform late abortions is very small, they may have relatively large caseloads; this factor may bias the reporting, depending on whether states in which these providers are located are part of the NCHS sample."
In other words, there is no way to know what the real numbers are.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) also admits difficulties in determining specifics about abortions, primarily that states aren't actually required to report their abortion statistics. The CDC states, "...states and localities voluntarily report data to CDC for report preparation. CDC's Division of Reproductive Health prepares surveillance reports as data becomes available. There is no national requirement for data submission or reporting. For more detailed information, we recommend you review the CDC/NCHS document, Handbook on the Reporting of Induced Termination of Pregnancy. (PDF2.5MB) Source: NCHS."
The "Handbook on the Reporting of Induced Termination of Pregnancy" makes it clear that only a "few" states provide information which includes gestational age of aborted fetuses.
The country believes late term abortions are "rare". Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organizations are very aware that if real numbers are made available to the public, funding will start to fall away.
Love of money is, of course, the root of all evil. Most people suffer under the misapprehension that Planned Parenthood is a non-profit organization, and therefore the stain of money grubbing.
The fact is, Planned Parenthood rakes in considerable profits, according to Randy Hall of CNS News."During its 2005-2006 fiscal year, the nonprofit Planned Parenthood Federation of America performed a record 264,943 abortions, attained a high profit of $55.8 million and received record taxpayer funding of $305.3 million," Hall said in a June 15, 2007 article.
Which perhaps explains, in part, why statistics on late term abortion are so difficult to find.
Why are there no statistics on fetal age of aborted children?
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