Abortion Funding Facts-- California
Unborn Children Exterminated at the Expense of Taxpayers-- 1998:
Approximately 110,295, which includes 54,885 fee-for-service abortions, plus approximately 55,410 non-fee-for-service abortions which occur in Medi-Cal funded Prepaid Health Plans and other managed care programs.
Tax Dollars:
$34,519,905, which includes $17,176,575 for fee-for-service abortions, plus approximately $17,343,330 for abortions in the other plans.
Ages of Women Who Receive Abortions:
- 32.8% were performed on women 20-24 years old
- 21.8% were performed on women 25-29
- 21.6% were performed on teenagers
- 13.8% were performed on women 30-34
- 10.4% were performed on women 35-45
Ethnicity of Women Who Receive Abortions:
- 30.1% of the abortions were performed on Hispanic women
- 28.4% were performed on white women
- 15.8% were performed on black women
- 4.4% were performed on Asian/Pacific Islander women
- 0.006% were performed on Alaskan Native and American Indian women
- 20.7% were not ethnically identified
Repeat Abortions:
1,742 women, 3.3% of those women who had “fee for service” Medi-Cal abortions, had two or more tax-funded abortions in 1998. 3.3% of the total places the actual number of women obtaining repeat abortions at about 3,640.
Abortion Providers:
- 62.3% of abortions were performed in physicians’ offices
- 24.2% in abortion clinics
- 12.9% in community and county hospital outpatient clinics
- 0.6% in community and county inpatient hospitals
Average Cost:
$313-- ranging from $272 in a physician’s office, to $283 in an abortion clinic, to $520 in a Community Hospital Outpatient Clinic, to $1,953 for inpatients in a Community Hospital.
(Medi-Cal Report: Medi-Cal Funded Induced Abortions 1998, Medical Care Statistics Sect., Dept. of Health Svcs. May 2000)
Policies of the Federal Government and the Other States:
The federal government pays for abortions only when necessary to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest.
It was the policy in twenty-seven states to fund abortions only when the life of the mother was endangered until the Clinton administration through threats and law suits forced funding for other exceptions in several of the states. (AL, AZ, AR, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MI, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, ND, OH, OK, RI, SC, SD, TX, UT)
Eight other states choose to fund abortions only when the life of the mother is endangered or when the baby has been conceived by rape or incest-- several also fund when the baby might be born with handicaps or for other exceptions. (CO, IA, NC, PA, TN, VA, WI, WY)
Eight states pay for abortions by order of their state courts. (California has been so ordered, but subsequently moved into the next category.) (CT, IL, MA, MN, NJ, NM, WV, VT)
Seven states and the District of Columbia fully fund abortions by legislative decision. Since 1990 the California Legislature put California in this group by voting to fund abortion on demand. (AK, CA, HI, MD, NY, OR, WA)