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| | Abortion Surveillance---United States, 1998 |
 | | The abortion ratio, defined as the number of abortions per 1,000 live births, was 264, compared with 274 in 1997 (for the same 48 areas); the abortion rate for these 48 areas was 17 per 1,000 women aged 15--44 years for both 1997 and 1998. |
 | | Abortion ratios were highest for the youngest women (750 abortions per 1,000 live births for women aged <15 years and 391 per 1,000 for women aged 15--19 years) and for the oldest women (338 per 1,000 live births for women aged >40 years) (Figure 2, Table 4). |
 | | In contrast to abortion ratios, among women for whom age was reported, abortion rates were highest for women aged 20--24 years (36 abortions per 1,000 women) and lowest for women at the extremes of reproductive age (2 abortions per 1,000 women aged 13--14 years and 2 per 1,000 women aged 40--44 years) (Table 4). |
| www.cdc.gov /mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5103a1.htm (6699 words) |
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