What has to happen to cause reporting across ALL the states?
And
How can we track which administration's policies influence an increase or decrease in abortions? Isn't there a lag in effective implementation and reporting?
That's a good question. Abortion reporting ceased to be a federal requirement in 1995—in an effort to cut costs. According to the NIH, "There is no longer a U.S. standard report of induced termination of pregnancy (induced abortion), which was eliminated from VSCP funding in 1995." (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219870) They further elaborate that the collection of state abortion data was discontinued "as a cost saving measure" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219884/). What's less clear to me is why only four states stopped collecting and reporting abortion data in the absence of federal funding. Whatever the cause, the fact that one of those states is California means our annual totals are grossly incomplete. This makes it hard to evaluate abortion trends at any level, though I don't think presidential policies generally have much bearing on abortion. It's Court appointments more than anything that determine a President's ultimate legacy on abortion. For my part, I keep an eye on state-by-state abortion totals as they're published to at least have some idea as to how abortion is trending.
What has to happen to cause reporting across ALL the states?
And
How can we track which administration's policies influence an increase or decrease in abortions? Isn't there a lag in effective implementation and reporting?
That's a good question. Abortion reporting ceased to be a federal requirement in 1995—in an effort to cut costs. According to the NIH, "There is no longer a U.S. standard report of induced termination of pregnancy (induced abortion), which was eliminated from VSCP funding in 1995." (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219870) They further elaborate that the collection of state abortion data was discontinued "as a cost saving measure" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK219884/). What's less clear to me is why only four states stopped collecting and reporting abortion data in the absence of federal funding. Whatever the cause, the fact that one of those states is California means our annual totals are grossly incomplete. This makes it hard to evaluate abortion trends at any level, though I don't think presidential policies generally have much bearing on abortion. It's Court appointments more than anything that determine a President's ultimate legacy on abortion. For my part, I keep an eye on state-by-state abortion totals as they're published to at least have some idea as to how abortion is trending.