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.