What do reproductive choices look like in N.C.? Pregnancy and abortion by the numbers

Danielle Dreilinger
·1 min read
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What are we talking about when we debate pregnancy? How many people are affected? Here's the landscape.

You can find pregnancy data on the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services website.

Pregnancy and birth

More than 140,000 people got pregnant in North Carolina in 2020. Hover over each county to see the number and rate.

Birth rates have declined, a little or a lot, in the last decade. That said, births went up in 2021, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control.

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Abortions and fetal death

Abortion is also on a long-term decline, both locally and nationally.

North Carolina collects data on fetal deaths that occur after 20 weeks. There were a total of 716 fetal deaths in 2020.

Stories from North Carolina women:

Inequality and hardship

Black women have disproportionately high rates of pregnancy, abortion and fetal death.

Many North Carolina women who gave birth in 2019 were using contraception and not planning to get pregnant. A significant minority lacked financial and health resources.

Adoption

The situation that's discussed in the abortion debate -- when a woman gives birth and chooses to place the child with another family -- is uncommon. The largest share of adoptions involve children who are in state custody. The rest are just about evenly split between stepparents adopting their spouse's children and private adoptions where the child is relinquished by birth parents. International adoptions have plummeted since their prominence early this century.

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Danielle Dreilinger is a Carolinas storytelling reporter. Her book The Secret History of Home Economics, an NPR Favorite History Book of 2021, is now out in paperback. Contact her at 919/236-3141 or ddreilinger@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Reproductive choices in NC: Pregnancy and abortion by the numbers