Dickinson-Iron County Critical Health Indicators
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Abortion                                                                                           

What Is It?

Abortion is defined as the purposeful induced termination of a pregnancy. Induced abortions can be an indicator of the incidence of unintended pregnancies and access to family planning services. Adequate access to family planning services can reduce the incidence of unintended pregnancies and therefore reduce the need for abortion.

How are Dickinson and Iron Counties doing?

The average annual reported abortion rate for Iron County was 1.4 per 1,000 women aged 15-44 during the period 1997-1999. The rate in Dickinson County was 0.8. There were 9 reported induced abortions to Dickinson and Iron County residents in 1999. Click on the map to see county specific rates.

How is the State of Michigan doing?

There were a total of 26,207 induced abortions among Michigan women in 1999, resulting in a rate of 11.9 per 1,000 women aged 15-44. Michigan abortion rates have declined 28 percent since 1989 when the abortion rate was 16.5.

In 1999, 54.2 percent of Michigan women who obtained an induced abortion had no previous induced abortion. In general, a gradual increase has been observed in the proportion of women reporting two or more induced abortions (from 16.6 percent in 1990 to 20.4 percent in 1999).

How do Dickinson and Iron Counties compare with Michigan and the U.S.?

Both Dickinson and Iron County's 1999 rate are significantly lower than both the state and national rates. Typically the Michigan abortion rate has been lower than the U.S. rate. In 1999, the Michigan induced abortion rate of 11.9 was 40 percent lower than the U.S. rate of 20.0. Dickinson and Iron County have always been lower than State or National rates.

How are different populations affected?

In 1999, 84 percent of induced abortions in Michigan were to unmarried women. It should be noted, however, that women of all reproductive ages, married and unmarried, and in all income categories have abortions.

Almost half of all abortions are to Michigan women age 25 and over. The proportion of younger women having abortions has decreased significantly in recent years. In 1989, 59.1 percent of abortions were to Michigan women under 25 years old; this percentage had decreased to 51.1 percent in 1999. Abortions to teenagers account for almost all of this decline; the proportion of abortions to teenagers decreased from 25.3 percent in 1990 to 19.1 percent in 1999.

What other information is important to know?

Abstinence is the most effective means of avoiding unintended pregnancy. Effective family planning and the avoidance of unintended pregnancy can reduce the number of abortions.

What are the Dickinson-Iron District Health Department and the Michigan Department of Community Health doing to affect this indicator?

The Dickinson-Iron District Health Department is actively working towards abortion prevention through efforts of the Michigan Abstinence Partnership. Family planning providers, through contracts with the Michigan Department of Community Health, offer contraceptives and reproductive health services to encourage fertility control that promotes the health and well-being of women, children, and families. The strong educational and counseling components of the program help to reduce health risks and promote healthy behaviors. In 1999, services were provided to 1,535 residents through the Health Department's family planning program. There are several other family planning clinics in the community including Planned Parenthood and the Northern Michigan University Health Center.

The Dickinson-Iron Healthy Youth Coalition's Michigan Abstinence Partnership project, which was developed by the Department in 1998, is a broad-based group of people from the community committed to encouraging young people to stay healthy by avoiding risky behaviors such as sexual activity. The partnership funds local youth developmental asset/abstinence activities targeted to youth and families in their communities. The group aims to positively impact adolescent health problems by promoting abstinence from sexual activity among the 9 to17 year-old population. The partnership has utilized a successful, award-winning media campaign to educate both children and their parents. Using the theme "Sex Can Wait," children are educated about the consequences of sexual activity and parents are encouraged to talk with their children about these important issues. Additional program components include funding for local coalition activity, parent groups, and program evaluation.

The Dickinson-Iron District Health Department through the Dickinson-Iron Healthy Youth Coalition initiated a mini-grant process that has also been adopted by other community grant-writers that allows community and programming partners to apply for mini-grants that support Youth Asset Building and promote healthy youth lifestyles with a pronounced "Abstinence of sexual activity" component in each grant. One mini-grant specifically produces a Parent Education packet with parental support information to assist in their child's sexual education.