Abortions declined last year in Kansas by about 5.4 percent and dropped to their lowest number in 25 years, the state Department of Health and Environment reported Friday.
Advocates on both sides of the debate said the decrease can be tied to the Legislature’s ongoing approval of tougher abortion restrictions, including multiple new laws enacted since Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, a strong abortion opponent, took office in January 2011.
Kansans for Life Executive Director Mary Kay Culp said the decline in abortions last year shows the approach advocated by the group is working.
The health department wouldn’t speculate on why abortions continue to decline. Culp said she believes other important factors in the decline are the work of dozens of pregnancy crisis centers and the state health department posting detailed information about fetal development on its website.
“That is good news for women and unborn babies,” Culp said.
The health department said doctors reported 7,457 abortions last year, or 428 fewer than the 7,885 terminated pregnancies reported in 2011. The number hasn’t been that low since 1987, when doctors reported 6,409 abortions and that was before a 1995 mandate that physicians and medical facilities report each time they terminate a pregnancy.
Abortions peaked at 12,422 in 2001 and have declined 40 percent since.
Source: The Kansas City Star