DID YOU KNOW?

Fast facts about pregnancy, adoption and abortion

Pregnancy

• There are 6.4 million pregnancies a year in the U.S.
• 49% of pregnancies among American women are unintended.
• At 18 days after conception, the (baby's) heart is forming, and the eyes start to develop.  By 21 days, the heart is pumping blood throughout the body.
• At 42 days after conception (6 weeks), a baby's brain waves can be recorded, and the baby's skeleton is complete.
• 79% babies born at 25 weeks' gestation in the U.S. survive.

Adoption

• About 2% of U.S. children under the age of 18 are adopted. 
• Nearly 4 in 10 American adults (81.5 million) have considered adoption.
• Since 1987, the number of adoptions annually in the U.S. has remained relatively constant, ranging from 118,000 to 127,000.
• An estimated 10 million couples would attempt to adopt a child domestically if they felt they had a realistic opportunity to do so.
• 48% families considering adoption turn to their houses of worship for support and information.
• A growing nunber of children are now placed through independent (private) adoption with estimates ranging from 1/2 to 2/3 of infant adoptions.
• 2% of unmarried women at any age place their children for adoption.
• In 1998, 56% of Americans held a "very favorable" opinion of adoption. Today, 63% hold this opinion.
• November is National Adoption Awareness Month.
• Fewer than 50,000 children find families through intercountry adoption each year.

Abortion

• "The 3,733 abortions occurring every day in America are ... more than all the lives lost in the September 11, 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center." Randy Alcorn in Why Pro-Life?
• Half of unplanned pregnancies in America end in abortion; 24% of all pregnancies (excluding miscarriage) end in abortion.
• 84% women who have had an abortion say they would have kept their babies under different circumstances.
• Only 1/3 Americans find abortion morally acceptable; 2/3 find it morally wrong.
• An overwhelming number of teens find abortion abhorrent ... maybe it's because millions of other teens who would have been their friends and peers never made it out of the womb. 
• In 2008, Planned Parenthood performed 134 abortions for every 1 adoption referral.
• 8 out of 10 pregnancy care centers (PCCs) report that abortion-minded women decide to keep their babies after seeing ultrasound images.