In 2022, there were around 613 thousand legal abortions in the United States. The number of legal abortions in the United States has decreased significantly since the early 1990’s. This number will probably continue to decrease in the coming years since many states have severely limited or completely banned abortion after the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court in 2022. The states with the highest abortion rates In 2022, the rate of legal abortions per live births in the United States was 19.9 per 100. In comparison, in 1990 there were 34.4 abortions per 100 live births. The states with the highest rates of abortion per live births are New Mexico, Illinois, and Florida. In Florida, there were around 37 abortions per 100 live births in 2022. Florida had the highest total number of abortions that year, followed by New York and Illinois. Missouri and South Dakota had the lowest number of abortions in 2022. Out-of-state abortions Critics of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade argue that while those who can afford it may be able to travel to other states for an abortion if their state bans the procedure, poorer residents will have no such choice. Even before the overturning of Roe v. Wade, out-of-state residents already accounted for a high share of abortions in certain states. In 2022, 69 percent of abortions in Kansas were performed on out-of-state residents, while out-of-state residents accounted for around 62 percent of abortions in New Mexico. Illinois had the highest total number of abortions performed on out-of-state residents that year, with around 16,849 procedures.

Abortion in the United States is still a contentious topic. In 2022, the leading state by number of legal abortions in the United States was Florida, which reported 82,581 abortions. In that year, New York reported 72.7 thousand abortions, followed by Illinois with almost 56.5 thousand. There were a total of almost 613,383 legal abortions in the United States in 2022.

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.

Abortion remains a controversial topic in the United States and has been an exceptionally political topic since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. This ruling has allowed individual states to completely ban the procedure if they choose, which a number of states have since done. In 2022, the year of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the highest rates of legal abortion in the United States were among women aged 25 to 29 years, with around 18.7 abortions per 1,000 women. How many abortions are there in the United States each year? In 2022, there were an estimated 613,000 legal abortions in the United States. This was a decrease from the year before, and in general, the number of legal abortions per year in the U.S. has decreased since the late 1990s. The rate of abortion has also decreased significantly. In 1997, the rate of legal abortions per 100 live births was 30.6, but this had dropped to 19.9 per 100 live births by the year 2022. At that time, the states with the highest rates of abortion were New Mexico, Illinois, and Kansas. Public opinion on abortion As of 2023, around 52 percent of U.S. adults considered themselves pro-choice, while 44 percent were pro-life. However, these numbers have fluctuated over the years, with a larger share of people identifying as pro-life just four years earlier. Nevertheless, a poll from 2024 showed that only a small minority of U.S. adults want abortion to be illegal in all cases, with younger people more likely to support the legalization of abortion in any circumstance. Furthermore, surveys have shown that since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, U.S. adults have expressed being much more dissatisfied with abortion policy in the country, desiring less strict policy.

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.

A survey of women who obtained an abortion in the United States between June 2021 and July 2022 found that 26 percent were Hispanic, while 33 percent were white. This statistic shows the distribution of women in the U.S. who obtained an abortion from June 2021 to July 2022, by race/ethnicity.

A survey of women who obtained an abortion in the United States between June 2021 and July 2022 found that 45 percent of women who received an abortion were insured under Medicaid, while 21 percent had no health insurance at all. This statistic shows the distribution of women in the U.S. who obtained an abortion from June 2021 to July 2022, by health insurance status.

In 2022, the rate of abortion among adolescent women aged 19 years in the United States was around 12.4 per 1,000 population. Abortion in the United States remains a controversial and divisive subject. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the historic court ruling that gave women the right to abortion. Now states are allowed to completely ban the procedure if they so choose. However, despite the ruling and subsequent abortion bans in many states, polls show the majority of U.S. adults still favor the legalization of abortion. How many abortions are there in the U.S. per year? In 2022, there were around 613,000 legal abortions in the United States. This was one of the lowest numbers recorded since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. The rate of abortions per 100 live births in 2022 was 19.9, a significant decrease from a rate of 30.6 reported in 1997. The states with the highest rates of abortion in 2022 were New Mexico, Illinois, and Kansas, while Missouri and South Dakota had the lowest rates. Abortion among adolescents The rate of abortion among adolescent women in the United States aged 15 to 19 years has also decreased over the past decade. In 2013, there were around 8.2 abortions among adolescent women per 1,000 population. By the year 2022, this figure had dropped to 5.4 per 1,000 population. The majority of abortions among adolescents occur at week nine or less of gestation. The birth control pill is one of the safest and most effective ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but only around 23 percent of female high school students who were sexually active were using the pill in 2021.

In 2022, there were around 38 legal abortions per 100 live births among unmarried women in the United States. In comparison, the rate of abortion per live births among married women was around four per 100. The abortion rates for both married and unmarried women in the United States have decreased over the last few decades. Abortion statistics in the United States In 2022, the overall rate of abortion in the United States per 100 live births was 19.9. Abortion in the U.S. is most common among women aged 25 to 29 years, with around 19 abortions per 1,000 women in this age group. The most common method of abortion in 2022 was medical abortion with a gestation of nine weeks or less, followed by surgical abortion with a gestation of 13 weeks or less. Medical abortion involves taking prescription medication to end the pregnancy, while surgical abortion involves a surgical procedure. The two main types of surgical abortion are vacuum aspiration and dilation and evacuation (D&E). Abortion-related deaths in the United States are very rare, with only five such deaths reported in 2021. Abortion among adolescents In 2022, the abortion rate among adolescent women in the United States aged 15 to 19 years was 5.4 per 1,000 population. In comparison, in 2013, this rate was 8.2 per 1,000 women. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the abortion rate among adolescent women increases with age. In 2022, those aged 19 years had the highest rate of abortion among teenagers. The majority of abortions performed on adolescent women are done in week nine or less of gestation. In 2022, there were around 24,626 abortions performed on adolescent women in week nine or less of gestation, while 9,313 abortion procedures were carried out after week nine of gestation.

Abortions in the Soviet Union became much more accessible under the Khrushchev administration in 1953, and the USSR's abortion rate subsequently developed into the highest in the world. The Soviet government did not begin releasing official statistical data until the 1970s, however it is believed that around six or seven million abortions were carried out each year in the 1950s and 1960s; a figure that remained fairly consistent until the late 1980s**. This high rate was, in-part, due to rapid urbanization and a desire for smaller families, as well as the lack of quality contraceptives produced by the Soviet government, and the widespread belief that abortion was safer than the side-effects of hormonal regulation via the pill. Relative to population size, there were between 97 and 106 abortions carried out per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 49 in the given years, which is roughly equal to one in ten women of childbearing age having an abortion each year (estimates for Russia alone suggest that this number was one in six in the 1960s). There were however regional disparities across the Soviet Union, as abortions were much more accessible and common in the European part of the country, and less available or socially acceptable in the Muslim-majority and rural regions of Asia. Abortion in the U.S. In the U.S. during this time, the abortion rate was much lower due to previous legal restrictions and lack of access, societal attitudes, and better access to contraceptives. Prior to 1973, abortions were either banned outright or only available under specific circumstances in all-but-four states. The Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade then saw the removal of most federal restrictions relating to abortion in the first trimester of pregnancy. This granted women across the country greater access to legal abortions; in 1975 there were over one million legal abortions performed in the U.S., and between 1.5 and 1.6 million in the 1980s. Proportional to population size, this equated to 29 abortions per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 45 in 1980, which is roughly equal to one in 34 women of childbearing age having an abortion in this year. Legacy During the decline and dissolution of the Soviet Union, the government began to promote the use of contraceptives, however the poor quality and supply of these reinforced former perceptions that they were more harmful than abortions. Additionally, medical institutions received much higher sums from the government when abortions were performed (relative to income from contraceptives), and these incentives delayed the drop in Russian and other post-Soviet states' abortion rates. While it is now generally accepted that contraception is safer than abortion, and awareness of the risks of infertility and maternal death has become more widespread, today, Soviet successor states have some of the highest abortion rates in the world by a considerable margin.

In the U.S., following the peak of almost 30 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in the 1980s, the abortion rate has gradually fallen with each decade, even dropping below the 1973 level in 2017. Although this is a side effect of improvements in contraception and education, a large part of this decline can be attributed to restricted access to abortion, particularly in rural and southern regions. While the majority of U.S. adults support Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling in June 2022, granting states the right to determine their own abortion laws.

The number of abortion-related deaths in the U.S. has decreased dramatically since 1973. In 1973, the number of deaths related to abortions was 47. In 2021, the number of reported deaths related to abortions had decreased to just five. Abortion is the act of ending a pregnancy so that it does not result in the birth of a baby. Abortions in the U.S. Abortions can be performed in a surgical setting or a medical setting (the pill). The number of legal abortions reported in the U.S. has generally declined yearly since 1990. The most frequently performed kind of abortion in the U.S. in 2022 were medical abortions. Abortion and the legality and morality of the procedure has been a publicly debated topic in the United States for many years. Public opinions on abortion Opinions on abortion in the United States can be divided into two campaigns. Pro-choice is the belief that women have the right to decide when they want to become pregnant and if they want to terminate the pregnancy through an abortion. Pro-life, is the belief that women should not be able to choose to have an abortion. As of 2023, around 52 percent of the U.S. population was pro-choice, while 44 percent considered themselves pro-life. However, these shares have fluctuated over the past couple decades, with a majority of people saying they were pro-life as recently as 2019.

A survey of women who obtained an abortion in the United States between June 2021 and July 2022 found that almost 42 percent of women who received an abortion at that time had a family income less than 100 percent of the federal poverty level. This statistic shows the distribution of women in the U.S. who obtained an abortion from June 2021 to July 2022, by family income as a percent of the federal poverty level.

In 2022, there were 19,360 reported abortions among teenage girls aged 19 years, and a total of 45,784 among girls aged 19 years and younger. This statistic shows the reported number of abortions among adolescent women in the U.S. in 2022, by age group.

In a ruling over the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the U.S. constitution does not confer a right to abortion, therefore allowing states to ban abortion if they choose. One year after this ruling, the overall number of abortions in the United States had actually increased. In states with a ban on abortion, the number of such procedures had decreased, while those states without a ban had seen an increase in abortions. For example, March 2023 saw 19,940 more abortions in states without a ban compared to in April and May 2022, just before the Supreme Court ruling. This statistic shows the estimated change in the number of abortions in the United States per month post-Dobbs (July 2022 to June 2023) compared to pre-Dobbs (April and May 2022), by legal status of abortion.

The abortion rate decreased by 100 percent in 13 states in the U.S. between April 2022 and June 2023. In June of 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned its ruling on Roe v. Wade, the case that protected the right to terminate a pregnancy. Roe v. Wade In June 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a ruling that overturned the 1973 case, Roe v. Wade. Since then, 12 states have completely banned abortion, while other state’s place time limits on abortion. The new ruling – outlined in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – was an extremely divisive decision and caused considerable controversy and backlash. More than half of the American population considers themselves to be “pro-choice,” and even religiously affiliated Americans generally do not think that abortion should be illegal in all cases. While the Roe v. Wade ruling did not make abortion outright illegal, it did hand back the power to make decisions regarding abortion rights back to state legislatures. The ruling has placed millions of women at risk, and healthcare providers in legal limbo as to what kinds of procedures they are permitted to perform. Changes in the abortion rate The United States has seen a gradual decline in its abortion rate over the last decades. In the months following the Supreme Court decision, the abortion rate in each state has changed in different ways. States friendly to abortion that border states with more restrictive abortion policies have seen the most dramatic increases in performed abortions. Kansas, for example, saw a 72.2 percent increase in abortions after the nearby states of Oklahoma, Missouri, and Arkansas increased restrictions. A similar story has played out in North Carolina, where abortions increased by 44.6 percent. In this case, the nearby states of South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee became less friendly to abortion. While the possibility to travel to a neighboring state to receive care is not illegal, it can be markedly expensive. This means that ultimately, people with lower incomes will have a disproportionately difficult time accessing abortion care.

In 2016, around 65.4 percent of abortions in the U.S. occured during the 8th week of pregnancy or earlier. This statistic shows the distribution of abortions in the U.S. in 2016, by gestational age in weeks.

In 2022, the states with the highest number of legal abortions obtained by out-of-state residents were Illinois, North Carolina, and Kansas. That year, around 16,849 abortions were performed in the state of Illinois among patients who were not residents of the state. This statistic shows the number of legal abortions performed among out-of-state residents in the United States in 2022, by state.

In 2020, there were 499,420 abortions provided at abortion clinics and 28,010 abortions provided at hospitals in the United States. This statistic shows the number of abortions performed in the U.S. in 2014, 2017, and 2020, by facility type.

As of March 2023, a total of 260,836 patients performed legal abortions in Mexico City, of which 179,224 were women who resided in the capital. Meanwhile, over 71,000 patients came from the neighboring state of Mexico. Mexico City was the first state in the country where women could have abortions legally within the first twelve weeks of pregnancy.

An outlier in an ocean of dissonance

Varying from state to state, each region in Mexico is unique regarding abortion laws and enforcement. Apart from rape, which is unanimously recognized across all states, factors such as maternal fatality, health, and child defects are the only exceptions for abortions in most local municipalities' penal codes. In many conservative parts of the country, such as Nuevo León, 100 criminal investigations were prosecuted due to abortion in 2020. Given abortion policies' political polarization, public opinion often falls along the lines of 'pro-choice' versus 'pro-life' disputes. According to a 2019 poll, citizens in Zacatecas, Chiapas, and Tamaulipas overwhelmingly disfavored women's right to abortion by over 70 percent, while citizens in Mexico City and Baja California favored women's right to abortion by approximately 53 percent.

A population at strife with abortion rights

In 2008, the Mexican supreme court decriminalized abortion in Mexico City, which set-off a historical precedent for women's rights across the region. Overall, Mexico along with Uruguay, Argentina, Colombia, and Cuba are the only five countries in the region to have passed pro-abortion legislation. Yet, the subject across the region continues to be a divisive opinion. According to a 2021 survey, Argentina remains the most progressive population, with 44 percent believing abortion should be allowed according to the woman's determination. However, across the region, around 35 percent of Latin Americans believe that abortion should only be allowed under certain circumstances, such as rape. Alternatively, birth control measures have become increasingly popular in the region. As of 2019, people in Latin America and the Caribbean were the second largest population using contraception in the world.