Abortion reporting in the United States: An examination of the federal-state partnership

In the US, lack of data on abortions has been increasingly recognized as a problem because it 1) frustrates debate about abortion procedures, late-term abortions, and the incidence and timing of abortions; 2) challenges the accurate establishment of a baseline for states to use when seeking new federal grants that reward decreases in abortion rates; and 3) will hinder documentation of a shift to earlier, drug-induced abortions. Criticism of the data collection efforts of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), however, ignores the fact that states have an independent responsibility for data collection and submission. Exploration of this topic begins by providing background information on the history of the US vital statistics system. Next, the collection of abortion data is traced from its origins in the 1960s with a consideration of the controversial nature of such reporting as well as of the impact of lack of data completeness and quality. The analysis continues with a review of the current state of abortion reporting that looks at laws, regulations, voluntary reporting, state data collection, and national data collection. The discussion concludes that a national abortion data collection system is largely in place but that variability among states affects the CDC's ability to accurately assess the data or to answer specific questions about abortion in the US. Policy-makers should match information needs with resources and investigate the limits of the current systems and data quality to improve state-level data collection and management.