Tag Archives: maps

Fertile land the size of France has been damaged by salt, a new Manhattan weekly

by TeddyLowrance Posted on November 10, 2014

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Cesar’s Way – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

“I rehabilitate dogs. I train people.” —Cesar Millan There are at least 68 million dogs in America, and their owners lavish billions of dollars on them every year. So why do so many pampered pets have problems? In this definitive and accessible guide, Cesar Millan—star of National Geographic Channel’s hit show Dog Whisperer with Cesar […]

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The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo

This best-selling guide to decluttering your home from Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes readers step-by-step through her revolutionary KonMari Method for simplifying, organizing, and storing. Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles? Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes […]

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White Dwarf Issue 41: 08 November 2014 – White Dwarf

More Tyranid reinforcements arrive this week in the shape of the Tyrannocyte and Sporocyst, and we’ve got the rules for them. You’ll also find a new instalment of Rules of Engagement, with a new Warhammer mission for playing unbalanced games, more gorgeous paint jobs in ‘Eavy Metal, making Tyranid objectives in Sprues and Glue, and […]

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Good Dog – Editors of Garden and Gun & David Dibenedetto

Garden & Gun magazine’s aptly named Good Dog column is one of the publication’s most popular features. Now editor in chief David DiBenedetto and the editors of Garden & Gun have gathered their favorite essays as well as original pieces for this must-read collection of dog ownership, companionship, and kinship.  By turns humorous, inspirational, and […]

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Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner’s Guide – Rosemary Gladstar

With Rosemary Gladstar’s expert advice, anyone can make their own herbal remedies for common ailments, such as aloe lotion for poison ivy, dandelion-burdock tincture for sluggish digestion, and lavender-lemon balm tea for stress relief. Gladstar profiles 33 of the most common and versatile healing plants and then shows you exactly how to grow, harvest, prepare, […]

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Marijuana Grower’s Handbook – Ed Rosenthal & Tommy Chong

The all new Marijuana Grower’s Handbook shows both beginners and advanced growers how to grow the biggest most resinous, potent buds! This book contains the latest knowledge, tools, and methods to grow great marijuana – both indoors and outdoors. Marijuana Grower’s Handbook will show you how to use the most efficient technology and save time, […]

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How to Raise the Perfect Dog – Cesar Millan & Melissa Jo Peltier

From the bestselling author and star of National Geographic Channel’s Dog Whisperer , the only resource you’ll need for raising a happy, healthy dog. For the millions of people every year who consider bringing a puppy into their lives–as well as those who have already brought a dog home–Cesar Millan, the preeminent dog behavior expert, […]

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Marijuana Horticulture – Jorge Cervantes

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible is the most complete, thorough, and comprehensive cultivation book available on the market today.  This book has been dubbed the “bible” by its readers because it explains every aspect of cultivating marijuana and yielding high quality and abundant crops.  It explains the science, the simple how-to, practical and […]

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White Dwarf Issue 40: 1 November 2014 – White Dwarf

Watch the skies! For from beyond the coldest depths of space come the Toxicrene and Maleceptor, two new Tyranid monstrosities hellbent on devouring the imperium of man. Issue 40 of White Dwarf has the full rules for both of these huge new kits. Also in this issue: building a Chaos Legion, a Tyranid Paint Splatter […]

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Homer’s Odyssey – Gwen Cooper

BONUS: This edition contains a new afterword and an excerpt from Gwen Cooper’s Love Saves the Day. ONCE IN NINE LIVES, SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY HAPPENS.   The last thing Gwen Cooper wanted was another cat. She already had two, not to mention a phenomenally underpaying job and a recently broken heart. Then Gwen’s veterinarian called with […]

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Fertile land the size of France has been damaged by salt, a new Manhattan weekly

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This GIF Shows Just How Quickly Ebola Spread Across Liberia

by BernardoLuna Posted on October 23, 2014

Mother Jones

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When Ebola came to Liberia on March 22, it was a serious problem—not an existential threat to the entire country. Twelve people fell ill, and 11 of them died. By the end of April, the outbreak seemed to have run its course. But when the virus returned in late May, it moved more swiftly, spreading to 5 of Liberia’s 15 counties by July. By early August, a majority of the counties had been affected.

Based on figures released by Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, we’ve reconstructed the path of the virus in that country. The first Liberian cases were in the northern part of the country. From there, the disease spread to the south and east, and the World Health Organizations fears it could cross the border into Ivory Coast.

The colors on the GIF above show the number of new cases in each county over intervals of approximately one week. (Because the government’s reports have been issued somewhat inconsistently, some of the intervals shown are a bit longer or shorter.) You can also see how quickly the overall death toll has risen since the outbreak began. The data is imperfect, and the Liberian government has frequently revised its figures as suspected Ebola infections are ruled out. So in several instances, we’ve had to make some adjustments based on the available numbers.

As the graphic above shows, the rate of new infections being reported in Liberia appears to be falling—but disease watchers are unsure if that’s because the outbreak is slowing or because health workers have become too overwhelmed to accurately track its toll. Still, some parts of the country clearly are improving. Lofa County, in the north, where the disease reemerged in May, has seen a steady reduction in the number of new infections. Bruce Aylward, the WHO assistant director-general managing the organization’s Ebola response, said that decline indicates that in at least parts of Liberia, health workers are making real progress in their battle against the virus.

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This GIF Shows Just How Quickly Ebola Spread Across Liberia

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Red Dawn: The GOP’s Growing Monopoly on State Government

by pitery Posted on October 14, 2014

Mother Jones

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There’s never been a worse time to be a Democrat in a red state. Republicans now hold all the reins of power—the governorship and both houses of the state legislature—in 23 states. That’s up from just nine before the 2010 elections. There are now more states under single-party control than at any time since 1944. And without even token Democratic opposition, Republicans have busted unions in Michigan and Wisconsin, passed draconian tax cuts in Kansas, and enacted sweeping new abortion restrictions across the nation.

This November, more Americans could find themselves living under single-party GOP rule. There won’t be nearly as many states flipping to single-party rule as in 2010’s GOP romp, but Republicans are hoping to add Arkansas and Iowa to the list of states where they can implement their agenda free of Democratic resistance. In Arkansas, Republicans won the state House and Senate in 2012 and hope to add the governorship this year. And in Iowa, a razor-thin two-seat Democratic Senate majority is all that has held back a wave of conservative legislation.

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Red Dawn: The GOP’s Growing Monopoly on State Government

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Three-Quarters of Mexican Child Migrants Have Been Caught at the Border Before

by CarmeloUBYX Posted on August 5, 2014

Mother Jones

Pew Research Center

While the focus of the recent border crisis has been on unaccompanied child migrants from Central America, thousands of Mexican kids also have been apprehended trying to cross into the United States since last fall. According to a new analysis by the Pew Research Center, the vast majority had been caught several times before—and 15 percent of them reported having been previously apprehended six times or more.


70,000 Kids Will Show Up Alone at Our Border This Year. What Happens to Them?


Map: These Are the Places Central American Child Migrants Are Fleeing


Why Our Immigration Courts Can’t Handle the Child Migrant Crisis


Are the Kids Showing Up at the Border Really Refugees?


Child Migrants Have Been Coming to America Alone Since Ellis Island

See MoJo‘s full coverage of the surge of unaccompanied child migrants from Central America.

The US Border Patrol made more than 11,300 apprehensions of unaccompanied Mexican child migrants from October 2013 to May 2014. Among the kids picked up, 76 percent said they’d been caught “multiple times before,” according to the Pew report, which is based on data provided by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As the map above shows, 64 percent of Mexican minors crossing alone came from six states: Tamaulipas, Sonora, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Guanajuato, and Michoacán.

Currently, child migrants from Mexico (and Canada) can be deported shortly after apprehension, unlike kids from elsewhere, who are reunified with US-based family while their immigration proceedings are pending. As I wrote last month in a post about why the federal government shouldn’t change the law to more easily deport Central American kids:

When an unaccompanied Mexican child is apprehended by the Border Patrol, agents are supposed to screen him within 48 hours. Specifically, they are supposed to determine three things: (1) whether the child has been the victim of trafficking; (2) whether the child has a fear of returning to Mexico; and (3) whether the child is able to voluntarily make the decision to return home. If the screening reveals that the child hasn’t been trafficked, isn’t afraid to go back, and can make the decision by himself, then he can be sent back.

In practice, says the ACLU’s Sarah Mehta, “when they’re happening, the screenings are inconsistent, but often they’re not happening.” Some agents don’t speak Spanish; in other cases, Mehta says, kids have reported not being asked any questions at all, or being told by agents that they can’t get deportation relief for whatever they experienced at home or along the way to the United States.

Perhaps not surprisingly, a UN Refugee Commission report claimed that more than 95 percent of Mexican children caught at the border by themselves in fiscal 2013 were returned to Mexico. If Mexican kids do have legitimate asylum claims, they’re likely not being heard, advocates claim. And when these kids do get sent back, many try to cross again.

Here’s another Pew chart, this one showing the numbers of unaccompanied child apprehensions by country of origin since 2009:

Pew Research Center

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Three-Quarters of Mexican Child Migrants Have Been Caught at the Border Before

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Map: These Are the Places Central American Child Migrants Are Fleeing

by Tamera0164 Posted on June 27, 2014

Mother Jones

A recently produced infographic from the Department of Homeland Security shows that the majority of unaccompanied children coming to the United States are from some of the most violent and impoverished parts of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

The map documents the origins of child migrants apprehended by the Border Patrol from January 1 to May 14. It was made public by Adam Isaacson of the Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights organization, and it includes the following analysis about the surge in child migrants:

…Many Guatemalan children come from rural areas, indicating that they are probably seeking economic opportunities in the US. Salvadoran and Honduran children, on the other hand, come from extremely violent regions where they probably perceive the risk of traveling alone to the US preferable to remaining at home.

This echoes what I found in my yearlong investigation into the explosion of unaccompanied child migrants arriving to the United States. As I wrote in the July/August issue of Mother Jones:

Although some have traveled from as far away as Sri Lanka and Tanzania, the bulk are minors from Mexico and from Central America’s so-called Northern Triangle—Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which together account for 74 percent of the surge. Long plagued by instability and unrest, these countries have grown especially dangerous in recent years: Honduras imploded following a military coup in 2009 and now has the world’s highest murder rate. El Salvador has the second-highest, despite the 2012 gang truce between Mara Salvatrucha and Barrio 18. Guatemala, new territory for the Zetas cartel, has the fifth-highest murder rate; meanwhile, the cost of tortillas has doubled as corn prices have skyrocketed due to increased American ethanol production (Guatemala imports half of its corn) and the conversion of farmland to sugarcane and oil palm for biofuel.

Below is a more granular look at where kids are coming from, also produced by DHS. San Pedro Sula, the world’s most violent city, was home to the largest number of child migrants caught by the Border Patrol (more than 2,500). Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, sent the second-most kids, fewer than 1,000.

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Map: These Are the Places Central American Child Migrants Are Fleeing

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It’s World Water Day: 5 shocking facts about water scarcity that will make you cry a river

by Myrna Posted on March 21, 2014

If you’re reading this, you probably have clean water that runs out of your tap with the twist of a handle. But for almost 800 million people, it’s not nearly so simple, and water scarcity is a very real, and very deadly, reality for them. Original source: It’s World Water Day: 5 shocking facts about water scarcity that will make you cry a river Related ArticlesSee what environmental problem Robert Redford and Will Ferrell are fighting aboutHow to make zero carbon cheeseCrowdsourcing an online compendium of small farmer innovation

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It’s World Water Day: 5 shocking facts about water scarcity that will make you cry a river

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Was the Los Angeles Earthquake Caused by Fracking Techniques?

by VictorF32nso Posted on March 17, 2014

Mother Jones

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The epicenter of today’s L.A. quake was 8 miles from oil waste injection wells Kyle Ferrar, FracTracker Alliance

Was the 4.4-magnitude earthquake that rattled Los Angeles this morning caused by fracking methods? It’s hard to say, but what’s clear from the above map, made by Kyle Ferrar of the FracTracker Alliance, is that the quake’s epicenter was just eight miles from a disposal well where oil and gas wastewater is being injected underground at high pressure.

Don Drysdale, spokesman for the state agency that oversees California Geological Survey, told me that state seismologists don’t think that the injection well was close enough to make a difference (and the agency has also raised the possibility that Monday’s quake could have been a foreshock for a larger one). But environmental groups aren’t so sure.

In other states, injection wells located 7.5 miles from a fault have been shown to induce seismic activity, points out Andrew Grinberg, the oil and gas project manager for Clean Water Action. “We are not saying that this quake is a result of an injection,” he adds, “but with so many faults all over California, we need a better understanding of how, when, and where induced seismicity can occur with relation to injection.”

“Shaky Ground,” a new report from Clean Water Action, Earthworks, and the Center for Biological Diversity, argues that the close proximity of such wells to active faults could increase the state’s risk of earthquakes. According to the report, more than half of the state’s permitted oil wastewater injection wells are located less than 10 miles from an active fault, and 87 of them, or about 6 percent, are located within a mile of an active fault.

Scientists have long known that injecting large amounts of wastewater underground can cause earthquakes by increasing pressure and reducing friction along fault lines. One of the best known early examples took place in 1961, when the US Army disposed of millions of gallons of hazardous waste by injecting it 12,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, Colorado. The influx caused more than 1,500 earthquakes over a five year period in an area not known for seismic activity; the worst among them registered at more than 5.0 on the Richter scale and caused $500,000 in damage. Geologists later discovered that the Army well had been drilled into an unknown fault.

As Mother Jones‘ Michael Behar detailed in-depth last year, fracking is now a leading suspect for a spate of serious earthquakes in places that hardly ever see them, such as Oklahoma, where in 2011, a 5.7-magnitude temblor destroyed 14 homes and baffled seismologists.

“In some locations of the US, the disposal of wastewater associated with oil/gas production, including hydraulic fracturing operations, appears to have triggered some low-magnitude seismic activity,” concedes Drysdale, Geological Survey spokesman. But in California, he adds, oil companies are required to evaluate surrounding geology before disposing of wastewater underground, and can’t inject it at dangerously high pressures.

Yet Grinberg, a co-author of the “Shaky Ground” report, says that the existing regulations don’t go far enough now that quake-prone California is poised for a fracking boom. Though he’d like to see a moratorium on fracking while the risks are studied, he wants any eventual regulations to at least require seismic monitoring at or near injection wells and to look at the cumulative earthquake risk of entire oil fields.

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Was the Los Angeles Earthquake Caused by Fracking Techniques?

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How Many People Aren’t Vaccinating Their Kids in Your State?

by y32nmet Posted on February 17, 2014

Mother Jones

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It’s easy to find bad information about the safety of vaccines on the internet. That’s, well, the internet. But what’s scarier is that in many states, parents who buy into those myths can easily opt out of immunizing their children. In some cases, it’s no harder than checking a box on a school form saying that vaccines are against their “personal beliefs.”

In a 2012 study of vaccine exemption policies across the country, a team of researchers led by Saad Omer, a professor of public health at Emory University, found that of the 20 states that allowed personal belief exemptions for enrollment in a public school or child-care program, less than a third made it “difficult” to do so (for instance, by making parents re-apply for one each year, explain their beliefs in writing, or get a notarized letter of approval from a health care provider). In the nine “easy” states identified in the study, the rules required only signing a form. Indeed, Omer suspects that some parents sign vaccine exemption forms not because they actually hold anti-vaccine beliefs, but simply because it’s easier than juggling the doctors’ appointments, missed work, and other inconveniences of getting kids vaccinated. (More about that here.)

Personal belief exemptions aren’t the only option available to vaccine-averse parents. Every state allows for medical exemptions for reasons such as an anaphylactic allergic response to a previous vaccine. Forty-eight states (all but West Virginia and Mississippi) allow exemptions on religious grounds. In many states, obtaining a religious exemption isn’t any harder than getting a personal belief exemption. But according to Omer, religious exemptions aren’t as popular as personal belief exemptions. He’s found that opt-out rates in states that allow personal belief exemptions are 2.5 times as high as rates in states that only permit religious exemptions. In one analysis he found that whooping cough rates in states with personal belief exemptions are more than double those in states that allow only religious exemptions.

Unsurprisingly, Omer’s research also shows that states that make it easy to get a non-medical exemption see a corresponding dip in numbers of schoolchildren who get their shots. Rates of non-medical exemptions in the “easy” states were 2.3 times higher than rates in states with difficult exemption policies. Not only that, but that rate is climbing faster in easy states than it is in difficult states.

Rates of Nonmedical Exemptions from School Immunization, According to Type of Exemption and Ease of Obtaining One, 2006–2011 Saad Omer et al, The New England Journal of Medicine

Non-medical vaccine exemptions are dangerous because they threaten what’s known as “herd immunity:” Diseases simply can’t spread in a community where a high enough percentage of the population is vaccinated against them. The required percentage of vaccinations to ensure herd immunity varies by disease; for pertussis (whooping cough), it’s between 93 and 95 percent, according to Johns Hopkins’ Jessica Atwell, lead author of a study on pertussis and vaccines published last year in the journal Pediatrics. So if even a seemingly small number of kids across the state aren’t getting their shots, the immunity rate of the entire community can drop below safe levels. When that happens, lots of people are put at risk: infants who are too young to get shots, children who haven’t had their full series of shots yet, and those who can’t get vaccinated for medical reasons such as pregnancy or immune-system problems. And, of course, the exempted, unvaccinated children are also at risk.

In California, the percentage of kindergartners who get their full set of shots has been dropping since 2008, while the rate of personal belief exemptions jumped by nearly a percentage point in that time. Given that the national average exemption rate is 1.8 percent, that’s a big increase. During a California outbreak of pertussis in 2010, more than 9,000 cases were reported, and ten infants died. It was the worst outbreak of whooping cough in 60 years.

In the Pediatrics study, Atwell and her fellow researchers identified 39 geographic “clusters” across California—ranging in size from a few blocks to entire counties—where belief-driven opt-out rates are higher than the norm. The team found higher rates of whooping cough associated with these clusters. For example: Marin County, which had a personal belief exemption rate of 7.8 percent in 2012—nearly four times the national average—has the second-highest rate of whooping cough in the whole state. These results support the findings of a 2006 study led by Emory’s Omer which found higher rates of pertussis in states that allowed personal belief exemptions and had easy policies for doing so.

California is not the only state with high-exemption hotspots. On Vashon Island, Washington, 17 percent of kindergartners failed to receive their shots in 2013 due to a “personal/philosophical” exemption. That’s nine times the current national average. The year before, Vashon Islanders accounted for 16 percent of all whooping cough cases in Washington state’s King County, despite housing just one percent of its population. And a 2008 study of exemption rates in Michigan found 23 clusters within the state, and, you guessed it, a correlation with higher rates of whooping cough. Even individual schools and churches can serve as ground zero: After a measles outbreak broke out in north Texas in 2012, the state epidemiologist linked it t a local megachurch whose pastor had spread anti-vaccine myths in the past.

Now, some states are rethinking the personal belief loophole. Reeling from the 2010 outbreak, California passed a law making it harder to get a personal belief exemption. As of January 1, parents seeking a personal belief exemption have to obtain the signature of an authorized health care provider. (Finding such a doctor may not be easy; recent studies show that more pediatricians are choosing to drop patients who refuse to vaccinate their children.)

But not all states that currently allow personal belief exemptions are looking to tighten the rules for getting one. In a study released last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Omer and his colleagues surveyed the legislative landscape of vaccine exemptions, state by state. They found that of 36 bills introduced across the country last year, 31 sought to expand access to exemptions. While none of these passed, they far outweighed the number of restrictive bills; five were introduced, and three of these passed, in Washington, Vermont, and California.

There’s evidence that tightening exemption laws makes a difference. After reaching an exemption rate of 7.6 percent in 2009, Washington state passed a law requiring parents to get a doctor’s signature if they wanted to opt out of their children’s vaccinations. In just two years, the exemption rate plummeted by more than 40 percent. Pertussis vaccination rates climbed to 92.4 percent in the past school year, representing “the highest pertussis vaccine completion rate for kindergartners since the state began to collect this data in the 2006-2007 school year,” according to the Washington’s Department of Health.

Now Colorado wants to follow suit. The state is tied for ninth in the nation (with Maine) for the number of kindergartners who show up at school with vaccine exemptions—nearly 3,000 of Colorado kindergartners in the 2012-2013 school year, according to the CDC. To get a personal belief exemption, parents need only fill out a single form. Recently, a task force led by the state health department released a set of recommendations for lowering the state’s high opt-out rate. Among them: publicizing the percentage of immunized kids at every public school or child-care center in the state.

Additional research by AJ Vicens and Eric Wuestewald.

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How Many People Aren’t Vaccinating Their Kids in Your State?

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MAP: The Republican Crusade to End Insurance Coverage of Abortion

by PEACarinzhpby Posted on February 4, 2014

Mother Jones

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Last week, the GOP-led House of Representatives passed the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act, a bill that would radically limit Americans’ ability to buy private-sector health insurance that covers abortion. With the Senate under Democratic control and Barack Obama in the White House, the bill is doomed to fail. But abortion foes can rest easy. Although their momentum has stalled on Capitol Hill, there is a quiet campaign underway in states across the country to outlaw private-insurance coverage of abortion—and it’s working.

Lawmakers in 24 states have already prohibited plans on the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplaces from covering abortion. Now some states are going even further, targeting the tens of millions of women who receive health insurance from their private-sector employers. Nine states already have these broader bans, leaving 3.5 million women without insurance coverage for abortion. And since 2011, lawmakers in 10 more states have threatened the coverage of more than 9 million women, according to data assembled by the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit legal foundation focused on women’s rights.

Five states—Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, and Oklahoma—have prohibited private insurers from covering abortion for years. (The oldest ban, in North Dakota, dates back to 1979.) But the 2010 elections, which swept Republicans into power in state governments around the country, renewed interest in passing these bans. And since 2010, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, and Utah all have passed new laws banning private insurers from covering abortions.

From 2011 to 2013, lawmakers in another 10 states—Alabama, Indiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia—introduced bans on private-insurance abortion coverage, with many coming extremely close to passage, according to Elizabeth Nash, the state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion-rights think tank.

Now, just four weeks into the new year, lawmakers in Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia are slated to consider new bills to eliminate abortion coverage from every insurance policy in the state, putting almost 2 million more women at risk of losing coverage for abortion. (That’s according to estimates by the National Women’s Law Center, which calculated how many women of reproductive age are insured through the workplace in each state.)

The millions of women who now face having to pay for abortions out of pocket will find the procedures don’t come cheap. A May 2013 study from the Guttmacher Institute found that for women whose abortions weren’t fully covered by their insurance, an abortion cost an average of $485. Half of the women who were unable to rely on insurance to pay for their abortions—either because they didn’t have it or it didn’t cover abortions—ultimately found it difficult to pay. Large numbers of those women put off paying their rent or utilities or cut back on buying food in order to afford the procedure.

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MAP: The Republican Crusade to End Insurance Coverage of Abortion

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The Abortion Rate Hits a 30-Year Low

by Sheeritwern Posted on February 3, 2014

Mother Jones

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The abortion rate fell by 13 percent between 2008 to 2011, according to a new study.

The study, released by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights think tank, concluded that nearly 1.1 million abortions took place in the United States in 2011, some 700,000 fewer than in 2008. That’s the equivalent of 16.9 abortions per 1,000 women between 15 and 44. During the same time, the number of abortion providers fell by 4 percent and the number of abortion clinics fell by 1 percent.

“The national abortion rate appears to have resumed its long-term decline,” conclude researchers Rachel K. Jones and Jenna Jerman. The rate of abortions in the United State has decreased almost every year since 1981, when, according to Guttmacher spokeswoman Rebecca Wind, there were 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women. The decline halted from 2005 to 2008. As of 2011, the abortion rate not only began to drop again, it also hit its lowest point since 1973.

The authors did not investigate the reasons for the decline. However, since rates of abortion fell consistently across almost all states, and the time period covered by the study predates the surge of state-level antiabortion laws, the overall decline is likely not the product of new restrictions, the study notes. A few states, however, may have experienced declines related to new restrictions. Missouri’s abortion rate dropped 17 percent between 2008 and 2010, the authors note, perhaps reflecting the impact of a 2009 state law requiring women to seek in-person counseling before getting an abortion. Still, Jones and Jerman write, “It is crucial to note that abortion rates decreased by larger-than-average amounts in several states that did not implement any new restrictions between 2008 and 2010, such as Illinois (18%) and Oregon (15%).”

The increased use of contraceptives is thought to have played a role by reducing the number of unintended pregnancies—in particular among women living in poor economic circumstances who may have used birth control more consistently during the recession and the sluggish recovery period that followed.

Declines in abortions were steepest in Midwest and Western states, and all but six states—Alaska, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Wyoming, some of which had lower-than-average abortion rates to begin with—experienced decreased rates of abortion.

The loss of providers and facilities which performed abortions may have also had something to do with the drop in abortions. Jones and Jerman also surveyed the accessibility of abortion providers, finding that 38 percent of reproductive-aged women lived in a county without an abortion clinic—some 90 percent of all counties. Abortions induced by medication accounted for nearly 25 percent of all non-hospital abortions in 2011, up from 17 percent in 2008.

Jones and Jerman note that while the drop in abortion providers and facilities—4 percent and 1 percent, respectively—may seem negligible, the caseloads of different facilities can vary widely. Abortion clinics, for example, account for only 19 percent of the facilities that offer abortions, but provide 63 percent of abortions.

Nearly 50 abortion clinics closed from 2008 to 2011—and the drop in clinics was more pronounced than that for other types of facilities that offer abortions. Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Vermont each lost one clinic. “While these states lost only one clinic each, they had few to begin with, so the loss of even one may have affected access to services,” the authors write. “The closure of a clinic may have contributed to the larger-than-average declines in abortion incidence in Kansas and Oklahoma.”

As of 2011, North Dakota, Mississippi, and South Dakota had only one abortion clinic.

Taken from – 

The Abortion Rate Hits a 30-Year Low

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