In a recent discussion about abortion, the issue came up of knowing what groups of women are having abortions and the role that plays in how we talk about it and how we address it.

I found this chart that breaks down Abortions by age and race (when I said sort of, it’s because it’s split into white and “black/other”–But there is also a chart dividing Hispanic and non-Hispanic).

There is also this long article that does a good job articulating statistics concerning Teenagers and abortion and pregnancy, but it’s also ten years old.

The best and most recent statistics I could find are in this document (Download the pdf file).

Without getting too much into to the discussion of abortion, whether it’s right or wrong and all of that, I just felt it was valuable to put these links up so that we can read and learn and attempt to understand to a small degree the people about whom we discuss when we discuss abortion.
Regardless of what side of the fence you sit on, I believe it is hugely important for us to be addressing the needs of mothers in our society.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

If there is anything I take from that, it is a need to toss aside our abortion debates and come along side the mothers and children in our society and provide and meet their needs.

What are you doing to look after the orphans? What can I be doing?