Contraceptive Practice in the Context of a Nonrestrictive Abortion Law: Age-Specific Pregnancy Rates in New York City, 1971–1973

  • Sara L. Tietze
  • Richard Lincoln

Abstract

On July 1, 1970—1/2 years before the Supreme Court’s 1973 abortion decisions—the nation’s most liberal state abortion law took effect in New York State. The New York law permits termination of pregnancy by a doctor at the woman’s request during the first 24 weeks of gestation. In New York City, this law was implemented by the public and private medical services in a nonrestrictive manner, so that legal abortion has been made widely available and accessible to Online socioeconomic and ethnic segments of the metropolitan population. In an earlier report,l we tried to establish that about 70% of the legal abortions obtained by New York City residents during the first 2 years under the liberalized abortion law replaced illegal abortions, while 30% replaced unintended births.

Keywords

Pregnancy Rate York City Contraceptive Practice Fiscal Year Legal Abortion 
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Copyright information

© Sarah L. Tietze 1987

Authors and Affiliations

  • Sara L. Tietze
    • 1
  • Richard Lincoln
    • 2
  1. 1.New YorkUSA
  2. 2.The Alan Guttmacher InstituteNew YorkUSA

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