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ANNUAL ABORTION STATISTICS

• According to the Guttmacher Institute, an estimated 1,037,000 abortions took place in the United States in 2023—up from 930,160  in 2020. Guttmacher's selected annual abortion estimates for the last 20+ years are listed below:

  Annual Abortion Totals by Year
  2023	2020	2017	2014	2011	2008	2005	2002	2000
  1,037,000	930,160	862,320	926,240	1,060,000	1,210,000	1,210,000	1,290,000	1,310,000

  Annual Abortion Totals by Year
  2023	2020	2017	2014	2011
  1,037,000	930,160	862,320	926,240	1,060,000

  2008	2005	2002	2000
  1,210,000	1,210,000	1,290,000	1,310,000

• Based on available state-level data and #WeCount estimates, approximately 930,000 abortions took place in the United States in 2022—down from an estimated 974,000 abortions in 2021.
• State-level data indicates that approximately 887,000 abortions took place in the United States in 2019. That's up from approximately 872,000 abortions in 2018.
• In 2023, approximately 22% of U.S. pregnancies (excluding spontaneous miscarriages) ended in abortion.¹
• According to the United Nations' 2013 report, only nine countries in the world have a higher reported abortion rate than the United States. They are: Bulgaria, Cuba, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine.*

  *Though the UN lists China's official abortion rate at 19.2, China's actual abortion rate is likely much higher. According to China's 2010 census, there were approximately 310 million women of reproductive age in the country. An estimated 13-23 million abortions happen annually in China, resulting in an adjusted abortion rate of 41.9-74.2. The abortion rate is the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44.

• In 2021, the highest percentage of pregnancies were aborted in the District of Columbia (31%), Illinois (28%), and Florida (27%). The lowest percentage of pregnancies were aborted in Missouri (0.2%), South Dakota (1.6%), and Wyoming (1.6%). (CDC).
• In 2021, approximately 29% of all pregnancies in New York City (excluding spontaneous miscarriages) ended in abortion (CDC).
• The annual number of legal induced abortions in the United States doubled between 1973 and 1979, and peaked in 1990 (CDC).
• More than 60 million legal abortions have occurred in the United States since 1973.

WHO HAS ABORTIONS?

• In 2021, unmarried women accounted for 87% of all abortions (CDC).
• Among married women, 4% of 2021 pregnancies (excluding spontaneous miscarriages) ended in abortion. Among unmarried women, 29% ended in abortion (CDC).
• Women in their 20s accounted for the majority of abortions in 2021 and had the highest abortion rates (CDC).
• Adolescents under 15 years obtained 0.2% of all 2021 abortions; women aged 15–19 years accounted for 8.1% (CDC).
• Percentage of 2021 Reported Abortions by Age of Mother (CDC):

  <15 years	15–19 years	20–24 years	25–29 years	30–34 years	35–39 years	≥40 years
  0.2%	8.1%	28.3%	28.7%	20.4%	10.8%	3.6%

  <15 years	15–19 years	20–24 years	25–29 years
  0.2%	8.1%	28.3%	28.7%

  30–34 years	35–39 years	≥40 years
  20.4%	10.8%	3.6%

• Women living with a partner to whom they are not married account for 25% of abortions but only about 10% of women in the population (NAF).
• In 2021, women who had not aborted in the past accounted for 57% of all abortions; women with one or two prior abortions accounted for 35%, and women with three or more prior abortions accounted for 8% (CDC).
• Among women who obtained abortions in 2021, 39% had no prior live births; 44% had one or two prior live births, and 17% had three or more prior live births (CDC).
• Among white women, 10% of 2021 pregnancies (excluding spontaneous miscarriages) ended in abortion. Among black women, 33% ended in abortion (CDC).
• Black women were 4.5 times more likely to have an abortion in 2021 than white women (CDC).
• The abortion rate of non-metropolitan women is about half that of women who live in metropolitan counties (NAF).
• The abortion rate of women with Medicaid coverage is three times as high as that of other women (NAF).
• In 2014, 30% of aborting women identified themselves as Protestant and 24% identified themselves as Catholic (G).

WHY DO ABORTIONS OCCUR?

• In 2004, the Guttmacher Institute anonymously surveyed 1,209 post-abortive women from nine different abortion clinics across the country. Of the women surveyed, 957 provided a main reason for having an abortion. This table lists each reason and the percentage of respondents who chose it.

  Percentage	Reason
  <0.5%	Victim of rape
  3%	Fetal health problems
  4%	Physical health problems
  4%	Would interfere with education or career
  7%	Not mature enough to raise a child
  8%	Don't want to be a single mother
  19%	Done having children
  23%	Can't afford a baby
  25%	Not ready for a child
  6%	Other

• The state of Florida records a reason for every abortion that occurs within its borders each year. In 2021, there were 79,817 abortions in Florida. This table lists each reason and the percentage of abortions that occurred because of it.

  Percentage	Reason
  0.01%	The pregnancy resulted from an incestuous relationship
  0.15%	The woman was raped
  0.15%	The woman's life was endangered by the pregnancy
  0.95%	There was a serious fetal abnormality
  1.34%	The woman's physical health was threatened by the pregnancy
  1.89%	The woman's psychological health was threatened by the pregnancy
  21.3%	The woman aborted for social or economic reasons
  74.2%	No reason (elective)

WHEN DO ABORTIONS OCCUR?

• In 2021, 81% of reported U.S. abortions occurred prior to the 10th week of gestation; 93% occurred prior to 14 weeks’ gestation (CDC).
• Percentage of 2021 Reported Abortions by Weeks of Gestation* (CDC):

  ≤6 wks	7-9 wks	10-13 wks	14-15 wks	16-17 wks	18-20 wks	≥21 wks
  44.8%	36.0%	12.7%	2.7%	1.5%	1.5%	0.9%

  *Gestational weeks are measured from the first day of the woman's last menstruation and not from the day of conception. Though it does not provide an accurate fetal age (which is roughly 2 weeks less than the gestational age), it is the simplest way for an OB/GYN to age a pregnancy since the day of conception is often not known. Hence, if an abortion occurs at 8 weeks gestation, it is actually aborting a 6 week embryo. The images on our Prenatal Development and Abortion Pictures pages are more precisely captioned with fetal ages in accordance with standard teaching texts on prenatal development.

HOW DOES ABORTION TAKE PLACE?

• In 2023, medical abortions accounted for 63% of all abortions (G).
• In 2021, 44% of reported abortions were accomplished by curettage (which includes dilatation and evacuation). Most curettage abortions are suction procedures (CDC).
• Medical abortions made up approximately 56% of all abortions reported in 2021 (CDC).
• Ninety-six per cent of the more than 140,000 second-trimester abortions that occur annually in the USA are accomplished by dilation and evacuation (D&E) (NAF).

WHO IS DOING THE ABORTIONS?

• In 2017, abortions were performed in 1,587 different facilities, a 5% decline from 2014 (G).
• In 2020, there were 807 abortion clinics in the United States, a 2% increase from 2014 (G).
• Between 2014 and 2017, the number of hospitals performing abortions declined by 19%, from 638 to 518 (G).
• In 2017, 72% of U.S. abortion clinics performed abortion through 12 weeks’ gestation, 25% performed abortion through 20 weeks, and 10% performed abortion through 24 weeks (G).
• In 2014, 4% of U.S. abortions occured in hospitals; 1% occured in physician's offices. The other 95% occured in freestanding abortion clinics—without any established doctor-patient relationship (G).

ABORTION FATALITY

• In 2020, six women were reported to have died as a result of complications from induced abortion. Between 1973-2020, a reported 531 women died due to complications from legal abortion (CDC).
• The number of deaths attributable to legal induced abortion was highest before the 1980s (CDC).
• In 1972 (the year before abortion was federally legalized), a total of 24 women died from causes known to be associated with legal abortions, and 39 died as a result of known illegal abortions (CDC).

THE COST OF ABORTION

• In 2022, Planned Parenthood stated that the average cost of a surgical abortion in the first trimester is $600. They stated the average cost of a medical abortion to be $580. The reported cost range for a 2nd-trimester abortion is $715-$2000.²

ABORTION AND CONTRACEPTION

• Induced abortions usually result from unintended pregnancies, which often occur despite the use of contraception (CDC).
• In 2014, 51% of women having abortions used birth control during the month they became pregnant. (G).
• 9 in 10 women at risk of unintended pregnancy are using a birth control method (G).
• Oral contraceptives, the most widely used reversible method of contraception, carry failure rates of 6 to 8% in actual practice (NAF).

ABORTION AND MINORS

• 40% of minors having an abortion report that neither of their parents knew about the abortion (G).
• 39 states currently enforce parental consent or notification laws for minors seeking an abortion: AL, AK, AR, AZ, CO, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT, NC, ND, NE, NH, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WI, WV, and WY. The Supreme Court ruled that minors must have the alternative of seeking a court order authorizing the procedure (G).

ABORTION AND PUBLIC FUNDS

• The U.S. Congress has barred the use of federal Medicaid funds to pay for abortions, except when the woman's life would be endangered by a full-term pregnancy or in cases of rape or incest (G).
• 17 states (AK, AZ, CA, CT, HI, IL, MA, MD, MN, MT, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA and WV) use public funds to pay for abortions for some poor women. About 14% of all abortions in the United States are paid for with public funds—virtually all from the state (G).
• In 2014, 88,466 abortions in California were paid for with public funds. Public funds paid for 45,722 abortions in New York (G).
• In 2010, 180,621 U.S. abortions were paid for with public funds (G).

This page was last updated on August 19, 2024. To cite this page in a research paper, visit: "Citing Abort73 as a Source."

For Further Study:

• State Abortion Facts: Comparative state abortion stats by rank, total, percentage, and clinics.
• Contrary to Popular Opinion, America Already Has an “Extreme” Position on Abortion (Abort73 Blog)
• Where We’re Going; Where We’ve Been: Abortion in Japan, Rwanda and the United States (Abort73 Blog)
• The Moral Dilemma of Repeat Abortion (Abort73 Blog)
• The Blind Leading the Blind: America’s Awkward Entry Into Chinese Abortion Policy (Abort73 Blog)
  

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