Facts and figures relating to the frequency of abortion in the United States.
Primary abortion statistics in the U.S. are available from two sources, privately from The Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and publicly from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). In 2009 (the most recent year for which CDC data is available), California, Delaware, Maryland, and New Hampshire did not provide abortion reports to the federal government. Since California has not complied with CDC requests for abortion data in many years, and since California accounts for more abortions than any other state in the U.S, CDC totals are routinely incomplete. AGI, on the other hand, is the research arm of Planned Parenthood, the world's largest abortion provider. While their data is helpful, they are a much less neutral source. The following information has been gleaned from both sources to provide an overview of the frequency and demography of abortion. Additional, secondary statistics have been taken from the National Abortion Federation's (NAF) 2009 teaching text on abortion, Management of Unintended and Abnormal Pregnancy: Comprehensive Abortion Care.
ANNUAL ABORTION STATISTICS
- In 2008, approximately 1.21 million abortions took place in the U.S., down from an estimated 1.29 million in 2002, 1.31 million in 2000 and 1.36 million in 1996. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S. (AGI).
- In 2009, the highest number of reported abortions occurred in New York (119,996), Florida (81,918) and Texas (77,630); the fewest occurred in Wyoming (≤20), South Dakota (769) and North Dakota (1,290) (CDC).
- The annual number of legal induced abortions in the United States doubled between 1973 and 1979, and peaked in 1990. There was a slow but steady decline through the 1990's. Overall, the number of annual abortions decreased by 6% between 2000 and 2009, with temporary spikes in 2002 and 2006 (CDC).
- In 1998, the last year for which estimates were made, more than 23% of legal induced abortions were performed in California (CDC).
- Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended; about 4 in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion. (AGI).
WHO HAS ABORTIONS?
- In 2009, 85% of all abortions were performed on unmarried women (CDC).
- 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).
- Among women who obtained abortions in 2009, 40.2% had no prior live births; 46.3% had one or two prior live births, and 13.6% had three or more prior live births (CDC).
- Women between the ages of 20-24 obtained 33% of all abortions in 2009; women between 25-29 obtained 24% (CDC).
- In 2009, women aged 20-29 years had the highest abortion rates (27.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 20-24 years and 20.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 25-29 years) (CDC).
- 50% of U.S. women obtaining abortions are younger than 25; women aged 20-24 obtain 33% of all U.S. abortions and teenagers obtain 17% (AGI).
- In 2009, adolescents under 15 years obtained .05% of all abortions, but had the highest abortion ratio, 785 abortions for every 1,000 live births (CDC).
- Black women are more than 4.8 times more likely than non-Hispanic white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are 2.7 times as likely (AGI).
- 37% of women obtaining abortions identify themselves as Protestant, and 28% identify themselves as Catholic (AGI).
- At current rates, nearly one-third of American women will have an abortion (AGI).
WHY ARE ABORTIONS PERFORMED?
- On average, women give at least 3 reasons for choosing abortion: 3/4 say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities; about 3/4 say they cannot afford a child; and 1/2 say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner (AGI).
- Only 12% of women included a physical problem with their health among reasons for having an abortion (NAF).
- One per cent (of aborting women) reported that they were the survivors of rape (NAF).
WHEN DO ABORTIONS OCCUR?
- 88-92% of all abortions happen during the first trimester, prior to the 13th week of gestation (AGI/CDC).
- In 2009, 7% of all abortions were performed at 14-20 weeks' gestation; 1.3% were performed at ≥21 weeks' gestation (CDC).
- Percentage of 2009 Reported Abortions by Weeks of Gestation* (CDC):
- ≤6 wks - 32.3%
- 7 wks - 17.8%
- 8 wks - 14.0%
- 9 wks - 9.3%
- 10 wks - 6.6%
- 11 wks - 5.1%
- 12 wks - 3.9%
- 13 wks - 2.8%
- 14-15 wks - 3.4%
- 16-17 wks - 1.9%
- 18-20 wks - 1.8%
- ≥21 wks - 1.3%
- *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 ARE ABORTIONS PERFORMED?
- In 2009, 82.3% of abortions were performed by curettage (which includes dilatation and evacuation). Most curettage abortions are suction procedures (CDC).
- dilation and evacuation (D&E) (NAF).
WHO IS PERFORMING ABORTIONS?
- The number of abortion providers declined by 11% between 1996 and 2000 (from 2,042 to 1,819). It declined another 2% between 2000 and 2005 (from 1,819 to 1,787) It has remained stable between 2005 and 2008 (1,787 to 1,793). (AGI).
- Forty-two percent of providers offer very early abortions (during the first four weeks’ gestation) and 95% offer abortion at eight weeks. Sixty-four percent of providers offer at least some second-trimester abortion services (13 weeks or later), and 20% offer abortion after 20 weeks. Eleven percent of all abortion providers offer abortions past 24 weeks (AGI).
- Most abortions in the USA are provided in freestanding clinics; in 2005, only 5% occurred in hospitals, down from 22% in 1980, and only 2% took place in physician's offices (NAF).
- In 2008, 12 women died as a result of complications from known legal induced 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 2009, the average cost of a nonhospital abortion with local anesthesia at 10 weeks of gestation was $451 (AGI).
- In 2005, 57% of abortion providers, or 1,026 facilities, provided one or more types of medical abortions, a 70% increase from the first half of 2001. At least 10% of nonhospital abortion providers offer only medication abortion services (AGI).
- In 2005, an estimated 161,100 early medication abortions were performed in nonhospital facilities (AGI).
- Medication abortion accounted for 17% of all abortions in 2008 (AGI).
ABORTION AND CONTRACEPTION
- Induced abortions usually result from unintended pregnancies, which often occur despite the use of contraception (CDC).
- 54% of women having abortions used a contraceptive method during the month they became pregnant. Among those women, 76% of pill users and 49% of condom users reported using the methods inconsistently, while 13% of pill users and 14% of condom users reported correct use (AGI).
- 8% of women having abortions have never used a method of birth control (AGI).
- 9 in 10 women at risk of unintended pregnancy are using a contraceptive method (AGI).
- Oral contraceptives, the most widely used reversible method of contraception, carry failure rates of 6 to 8% in actual practice (NAF).
- Condom use confers protection against STIs, but it does not provide top-tier protection from pregnancy because of breakage, slippage, inconsistent use, and low continuation rates (NAF).
ABORTION AND MINORS
- 40% of minors having an abortion report that neither of their parents knew about the abortion (AGI).
- 35 states currently enforce parental consent or notification laws for minors seeking an abortion: AL, AR, AZ, CO, DE, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, MS, NC, ND, NE, 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 (AGI).
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 (AGI).
- 17 states (AK, AZ, CA, CT, HI, IL, MA, MD, MN, MT, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA and WV) do 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) (AGI).