How many women have abortions in 2024? The concept of abortions is a wide-ranging, controversial issue all over the globe.
With the latest decision by the US Supreme Court, it’s drawn more controversy.
Abortion is not a new thing, as it’s been around since women started getting pregnant.
It’s gone through times when it was banned to times when it was legal across eras, and in various regions all over the globe.
Whether it’s legal or not, there will always be scared women who will find a way to abort an unwanted pregnancy.
It’s just a fact. In this article, we are not going to discuss the right, wrong, or indifference of abortion.
This article will focus on the facts and figures about abortion as they are researched, studied, and shared.
How many women have abortions? Let’s find out that and more about this controversial issue.
How Many Women Have Abortions in 2024?
The data from the Guttmacher Institute from 2021 revealed that 930,160 abortions occurred in the United States.
For perspective, that figure was 862,320 in 2017. This figure excludes spontaneous abortions (miscarriages).
In 2019, an estimated 19% of all pregnancies in American ended in abortion. There are only nine other nations with higher abortion rates than America.
China’s abortion rate is reported by the UN as 19.2%, though it’s believed to be higher.
The estimate for how many annual abortions happened in China in 2013 is 13 to 23 million.
Since the 1970s, the number of abortions has fluctuated with some years in the 1990s as high as 1.5 million abortions.
Why Do Women Have Abortions?
Once again, this is a touchy subject to say the least, but one that needs to be discussed nonetheless.
Without knowing why women have abortions, answering how many women have abortions seems less necessary.
A 2004 Guttmacher Institute survey of 1,209 women who had abortions resulted in these reasons being mentioned by them.
- 25%: Not ready to have a baby
- 23%: Cannot afford a baby
- 19%: Done with having kids
- 08%: Didn’t want to be a single mother
- 07%: Lacking the maturity to raise a child
- 06%: Other
- 04%: Tie between mother’s health and career or education interference
- 03%: Fetal health issues
- <0.5%: Victim of rape
In Florida, they record the reason for each abortion that occurs in the state every year.
Florida had 74,868 abortions in 2020. Here are the reasons given for abortion in the state that year.
- 74.9%: No reason given – elective abortion
- 20.4%: Economic or social reasons
- 1.88%: Psychological health by pregnancy
- 1.48%: Physical health threatened by pregnancy
- 0.98%: Fetal abnormality
- 0.20%: Life endangered by pregnancy
- 0.15%: Rape
- 0.01%: Incest
Now you have some idea of why abortions happen from these figures.
When Are Abortions Performed?
How many women have abortions, and when are they performed? This is another part of learning more about the subject at hand.
In America 2019, 79% of all abortions happened before the 10th week of gestation, and 93% happened before 14 weeks, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Here is a list of abortions by the week of gestation (CDC).
- ?6 weeks: 42.9%
- 7-9 weeks: 36.4%
- 10-13 weeks: 13.4%
- 14-15 weeks: 2.9%
- 16-1 weeks: 1.7%
- 18-20 weeks: 1.6%
- ?21 weeks: 1.0%
The gestational weeks are calculated from the first day of the female’s last period, not from the day of conception.
It’s the easiest way for doctors to calculate pregnancy age, especially since the date of conception is not usually known.
To put this into perspective, a calculated 8-week gestation is actually a 6-week-old embryo.
What Types of Abortions Are There?
How many women have abortions, and why kinds are done? This section may be a little hard to read, but these are based on statistics.
Reported medical abortions represented 39% of all abortions in 2017. In 2019, 44% of abortions accounted for all reported abortions.
In 2019, 56% of reported abortions were done using curettage, which is dilatation and evacuation (D&E). Most D&E abortions use suction equipment.
In America, 96% of the 140,000-plus second-trimester abortions that are done annually are done using the D&E method.
Also, according to the CDC, between 1973 and 2018, it was reported that 521 women died due to legal abortion complications.
In 1972, 24 died from known complications of abortion, and another 39 died from illegal abortions.
In 2017, legal abortions were carried out in about 1,587 facilities, which was a 5% decrease from 2014 figures.
In 2014, 4% of legal abortions were done in hospitals, and 1% happened in doctor’s offices.
The remaining 95% were carried out in abortion clinics not associated with hospitals or doctor’s offices.
There is no established relationship between doctor and patient in these clinics.
The average cost of an abortion done at a clinic was $508 in 2014. These were done using local anesthesia at 10 weeks of gestation. Medical abortions cost $535 in 2014.
It’s reported that 40% of minors who have abortions claim that they didn’t tell their parents.
There are 39 states in the US that are seeking to enforce parental notification or consent for minors who want abortions.
Conclusion
How many women have abortions? We have provided the most recent facts available for abortions in America.
Hopefully, this article hasn’t been too difficult to read, as it is intended to inform and enlighten you.
You now have the data that shows how many abortions occur annually, and why and how they are performed.
If you have ever had an abortion, you may already know some of these facts. If you’re considering an abortion, you have some facts, figures, and information to help you decide if this is the right thing for you.
If you’re a parent, you should do your research in your state about the laws about notification and consent for abortions.
We hope you have learned something important from this data, and that it enriches your life with knowledge of abortion.
There is no bias in this article. We only researched, gathered, and wrote the stats and facts.
How many women have abortions in your state?
