Reproductive Rights Overview
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Reproductive Rights Over Time
Overview Notes
Reproductive Rights Explained
Reproductive Rights is a broad term that primary focuses on women’s health issues but also includes the rights and freedoms associated with the process of reproduction. When exploring this portfolio, it is vital that the user understands that this portfolio analyzes Pregnancies, Abortions, and Births. Furthermore, data used for the visualizations is centered on information gathered from women in the U.S.A.
States were assigned to regions defined by the U.S.Census. The major data source was the Guttmacher Institute, unless otherwise indicated.
Reproductive Rights Over Time Visualization Notes:
The ‘Reproductive Rights Over Time’ visualization initiates the portfolio’s agenda.
It facilitates that:
1) Pregnancies, Abortions, and Births are the primary focus of this portfolio, and that
2) there are visible changes in these three categories.
The most notable fluctuations are labeled; however, there is no further indication of why shifts occurred in these specific years. Viewers are invited to speculate events and factors that may have contributed and played a role in these changes.
Reproductive Rights Across Regions Visualization Notes:
The parallel plots show the ranking of rates across regions and compare how states documented the three primary categories. The Northeast and the South display the greatest variation within each category, which is notable through the spread of points across the range. In the Northeast, Pregnancy rates and Abortion rates vary significantly, with NY and NJ being outliers. In the South, Abortion rates diverge the most. The diverse rates could potentially stem from abortion restrictions, access to clinics, or the attitudes towards abortion itself. The plot also reveals two states in the South that stand out in Birth rates. For example, Arkansas has the highest Birth rate while DC reports the lowest in that region. These values align strongly with the Abortion rate ranking. One would expect that a state with a high Abortion rate would also have a lower Birth rate. However, HI has the 3rd highest Birth Rate in the West despite a relatively high Abortion Rate (only NV and CA outrank HI). More detailed dynamics for each category can be explored throughout the portfolio.
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Reproductive Rights Across Regions
Note: The ranges of rates vary among the three categories. To simplify the visual comparison in the paralell plot, the scale was normalized to a Min-Max, meaning that all variables were transformed into a range [0,1], with 0 being the lowest value and 1 the highest. All values in between are transformed accordingly. Each point represents a state in a region. Each line represents the connection between the same state across the categories.
Deep Dive DC vs. U.S.A.
Note: The landscape of reproductive rights has changed drastically over the last few years. Although, DC is not a state, its population is significant enough and can still contribute to the understanding of the complexity of the topic. Furthermore, DC is an outlier in many categories throughout the portfolio.
Pregnancies
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Pregnancy Rates in the U.S.A
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What Are the Regional Differences in Pregnancy Rates?
Note: To optimize the utility of the visualization, hover over the points to gain information on the state and its rate.
Key Takeaway: The inverted U-shape displays that pregnancy rates are highest between 25 and 34. Nevertheless, this image differed in previous years, and higher pregnancy rates shifted since 2007 towards an older age group. With 82.5 pregnancies per 1000 females, DC is a low-rate outlier in the 25-29 age category. DC also stands out in several other age groups, however, with higher rates.
A Closer Look at Teenangers
Abortions
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Which States Report the Highest Abortion Rate?
Key Takeaway: Several factors add to the high rate of abortions in NY and NJ. Both states have lesser restrictions on abortions and broader access to clinics. Between 2011 and 2017, 394 abortion restrictions were enacted in the USA. However, during this period, NJ added 17 clinics and NY 19 clinics. There were no abortion restrictions put in place during that timeframe in both states. On the contrary, 85 % of these 394 restrictions were enacted in the Midwest and the South. For example, Texas passed 22 restrictions and closed 25 clinics. Nonetheless, restrictions are not correlated with lower abortion rates (Source: Guttmacher Institute). Thus, other determining variables influence the disparities among areas.
Deep Dive - The South
Note: The South is an interesting study. Some Southern states such as Texas and Mississippi enacted restrictions on abortions and are currently at the Supreme Court Level arguing its legality. The plot shows Maryland and DC reporting the highest abortion rates; both states are progressive. Florida ranks 3rd. Although Florida is politically and socially conservative, its abortion laws are not in line with their conservative views at the time the data was collected. Women from neighboring states with restrictions potentially sought Florida as their place to get an abortion which could have increased their rate but kept the rates in their state of residency on the lower end. Abortion restrictions push women accross state lines (Source: The Economist.)
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Change in Number of Abortion Clinics
Key Takeaway: The visualization aims to illustrate the changes in the number of abortion facilities between 2011 and 2017. Although there has been an incremental decrease in abortion clinics in the U.S.A., the reduction does not reflect a major shift in the decline of clinics that provide abortions. An important measure to consider is that during the period 2011 and 2017, the Northeast increased the number of facilities by 58 while other regions (the Midwest and the South) mainly closed their clinics. For example, in the Midwest, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio closed 27 clinics combined.
Births
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A Birth Rate Timeline by Age
Key Takeaway: One can observe that birth rates for younger females declined drastically (age groups: 15-19, 20-24, 25-29). On the contrary, birth rates for females that fall into age groups over 30 years are increasing. Many contributing factors influence the shift. For example, women potentially prioritize education and career and postpone motherhood, and younger women have more access to contraceptives (Source: N.Y. Times.)
Another key takeaway from the visualization is that the declines are steeper than the increases, which proposes that decreases outweigh the additions, and that overall, the birth rate across the U.S.A. is slowly declining.
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Low Birth Weight by Race
Key Takeaway: In all four regions, the incidents of low birth weight for Black women were the highest. Babies born with low birth weight require special treatments and are at high risk for infant mortality. The visualization clearly defines racial disparities in reproductive health, and Black women are the most vulnerable.
Note: Racial categories are non-Hispanic. Hispanics may be of any race or two or more races. Data are not available for Asian/Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, or those who identify with another race/ethnicity. Low Birth Weight Babies are less than 5 lbs., 8 oz. Each point represents a state in that region; the yellow points and labels indicate the outliers.