The rate of legal abortions in the United States has decreased over the last few decades. In 2022, there were around 19.9 legal abortions per 100 live births, whereas the rate was 34 abortions per 100 live births in the year 1990. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022, states within the U.S. have the right to severely limit or completely ban abortion if they wish, meaning that access to such procedures varies significantly depending on the state or region. Abortion in the U.S. In 2022, there were over 613,000 legal abortions in the United States. Abortion rates in the U.S. are highest among women aged 25 to 29 years and more common among unmarried women than those who are married. In 2022, there were approximately 38 legal abortions per 100 live births among unmarried women compared to four abortions per 100 live births among women who were married.
Public opinion The issue of abortion has been and remains a divisive topic among the general public and continues to be a relevant political issue. As of May 2023, around 44 percent of the population was estimated to be pro-life, while 52 percent were pro-choice and three percent mixed or neither. However, this distribution has fluctuated over the years, with pro-lifers accounting for a larger percentage than pro-choicers as recently as 2019.

In 2022, the states with the highest rates of abortion per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years in the United States were New Mexico, Illinois, and Kansas. The states with the lowest rates of abortion were Missouri and South Dakota. Abortion differences among the states In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade allowing states to restrict the practice of abortion or outright ban it completely. A number of states immediately banned the procedure through trigger laws they had in place in anticipation of the ruling. Even before the ruling, abortion accessibility and rates varied greatly from state to state, but this difference has become even more pronounced. For example, in 2022, Florida had an abortion rate of 20.5 per 1,000 women, while the rate in Missouri was just .1. Florida had the highest total number of abortions that year, followed by New York and Illinois. While Florida reported around 82,581 abortions in 2022, there were just 88 such procedures in Missouri. Public opinion on abortion In the United States, the debate surrounding abortion is often divided among those who are “pro-life” and think abortion should be restricted or banned and those who are “pro-choice” and believe the decision to abort a pregnancy should be up to the woman. Gallup polls show the distribution of people in the United States who are pro-life or pro-choice has fluctuated over the years but in 2023 around 52 percent of respondents stated they were pro-choice while 44 percent said they were pro-life. Older respondents are more likely to express views limiting access to abortion, while younger people are more likely to believe abortion should be legal under any circumstance. However, just a small minority of people of all ages believe abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.

The ethnic and racial distribution of legal abortions in the United States varies greatly by state. For example, in Idaho non-Hispanic white women accounted for 66 percent of all legal abortions in 2022, whereas only 19 percent of abortions in Mississippi were among white women. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 many states, such as Mississippi, have made abortion illegal with limited exceptions. Which states have the most abortions? In 2022, the states with the highest total number of legal abortions were Florida, New York, and Illinois. That year, there were around 82,581 legal abortions in the state of Florida. Florida also had the fourth-highest rate of legal abortion per 100,000 women, with New Mexico reporting the highest rate. The states with the lowest rates of abortion that year were Missouri and South Dakota. Out-of-state abortions As many states have banned or restricted abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, it is likely that more women will now have to travel out of state if they would like to receive an abortion. Even before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a significant percentage of abortions in many states were performed on out-of-state residents. In 2022, around 69 percent of legal abortions in Kansas were performed on out-of-state residents, while out-of-state residents accounted for 62 percent of abortions in New Mexico. At that time, Illinois was the state with the highest total number of abortions performed on out-of-state residents, with around 16,849 such procedures.