Problem Definition Paper Lab 5

Definition Paper on Abortions 1 Running Head: NUMBER OF ABORTIONS BY

Number of Abortions by Year, State, Race, Age, and by Weeks of Gestation Jazmine Norwood Tuskegee University

Definition Paper on Abortions 2 1. Problem Identification. Abortion is the termination of pregnancy before the fetus has developed enough to survive outside the woman’s body. 2. Problem Description. A. Abortion has been a major controversy in the recent years. There are two sides to this view: Pro-Life, that abortion is wrong and Pro-Choice, it is the choice of the woman whether they want to abort or not. Another aspect to this problem is the question of when does life actually begin, at conception or when the heart begins to beat? There are some cases where a mother may not want to abort but due to unfortunate circumstances the mother’s life may be in danger and abortion is the only option. Cases like this are what leave some people on both sides of this problem. After viewing data tables of different races the results showed that African Americans rates were lower than white counterparts. If rates were to increase over the years the populations of blacks would decrease and a reason for the lower rates now could be due to family values or lack of financial income. B. There may never be a “perfect” solution to this problem but a social worker or anyone in the helping profession can help a client or patient realize there are other alternatives to abortion. 3. Findings. The data tables that were viewed explored the correlation between race and how many women actually had abortions over a time period between 1990 and 2004. For all races there was definitely an increase in the number of women that had abortions between the ages of 15 to 44. Once race was looked into further results displayed that whites had more abortions in 1990, blacks totaled to half, and other races were less than 75% lower than any other race. The common result between whites and blacks was that over the years abortion rates decrease and in other races abortion rates increased. A. Magnitude.

(pg. 5)

According to abortionfacts.com the rates for African Americans and others were less than whites. The total number of abortions for African Americans in 1995 was 231,624 women. Due to the financial strains that most African Americans face may be the reason why the rates for African Americans are so low. B. Scope.(pg. pg.3, table no. 90)

Definition Paper on Abortions 3 i.

Abortion occurs all over the world. In some countries this type of procedure is prohibited most of the data tables viewed looked at abortion all over the United States.

ii.

The data showed on abortionfacts.com stated that data came from 34 states including New York City but excluded three states where unknown race was 15%.

C. Changes. (pg. 5) Changes over the years from 1990 to 2004 showed that abortion rates for all races have decreased. Looking further at African Americans, rates stayed at a steady level and after a decrease for a few years rates seemed to increase a small percentage. The continuous decrease in abortion rates could be due to women being more informed about alternatives to abortion. D. Disparities.(pg. 1) Results from the data tables viewed showed that Caucasians had higher rates for abortion for every year recorded, when looking at age African American females under the age of 15 had higher rates. From the ages of 15 to 40 abortion rates for Caucasians were higher than African American and others.

Definition Paper on Abortions 4