Differences in Race, Marital Status, and Education Among Women Obtaining Abortions

An analysis of over 500,000 pregnancies examines racial, marital, and educational differences in adult women choosing abortion. Findings indicate that differences in race among women who abort vary by marital status, parity, and state of residence. Among unmarried women, whites are more likely than...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Social forces 1991-06, Vol.69 (4), p.1121-1141
Main Authors: Trent, Katherine, Powell-Griner, Eve
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abortion
Abortions
Adolescents
Adults
Age Differences
Blacks
Decision Making
Demographic aspects
Education
Educational Attainment
Gender equality
Marital Status
Marriage
Married status
Married women
National Center for Health Statistics
Pregnancy
Pregnancy, Unwanted
Race
Race Relations
Racial Differences
Single status
Single women
Social aspects
Sociodemographic Factors
United States of America
Unwanted pregnancy
White people
Whites
Women
Womens education
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Summary:An analysis of over 500,000 pregnancies examines racial, marital, and educational differences in adult women choosing abortion. Findings indicate that differences in race among women who abort vary by marital status, parity, and state of residence. Among unmarried women, whites are more likely than blacks, and among married women, blacks are more likely than whites to abort. The relationship between marital status and abortion also varies by education, parity, and state of residence. The likelihood of aborting increases monotonically as education increases, but only for unmarried women. The effect of education on whether women abort also varies by parity. Among women with a high school education or less, those with no prior births are least likely to abort, while for college-educated women, those with no prior births are the most likely to abort. A separate analysis examines determinants of abortion for teenage women.
ISSN:0037-7732
1534-7605
DOI:10.1093/sf/69.4.1121