The number of abortions performed in the US fell slightly in 2022, the year The Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. He overruled Wadea new federal report found.
In 2022, there were a total of 613,383 legal abortions in 48 areas. Among the 47 areas that continuously reported data from 2021 to 2022, there was a 2% decrease from 622,108 abortions in 2021 to 609,360. annual abortion care reportPublished Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The 48 areas included 46 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City, excluding California, Maryland, New Hampshire, and New Jersey.
The abortion rate was 11.2 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2022, down 3% from 11.6 abortions per 1,000 women the previous year, according to data from 46 states and New York City.
The lowest rates were highest in Missouri and New Mexico, respectively, in 2022. Roe v. After Wade was overturned, Missouri adopted a near-total abortion ban, with limited exceptions, while New Mexico allowed abortions based on length of pregnancy to remain unrestricted. However, in 2024, Missouri voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that enshrines the right to reproductive freedom, including abortion care.
Dr. Adam Jacobs, medical director of the division of complex family planning at Mount Sinai Heath System in New York, said he does not believe Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health –Roe v. The Supreme Court decision that led to Wade’s decision–is the main reason why abortion rates dropped between 2021 and 2022.
“A lot of the bans weren’t implemented or a lot of the structural changes weren’t implemented in calendar year 2022, so I don’t think that impact would have been seen in this report,” he told ABC News.
Abortion rights Activists rally for abortion rights outside the state Capitol in Atlanta on May 14, 2022.
Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images, FILE
Jacobs said the number and rates of abortions have been declining for years, and one of the main reasons is the Affordable Care Act. The law gives women more access to preventive services, including reversible long-acting contraceptives.
According to the report, women in their 20s had more than half of all abortions in 2022 and had the highest abortion rates. Conversely, adolescents under the age of 15 and women aged 40 and over had the lowest percentages of abortions and the lowest abortion rates.
Between 2013 and 2022, abortion rates decreased in all age groups, except for women aged 30 to 34, whose rates increased.
When breaking down the abortion rate by gestational age, the report found that most abortions, or 78.6%, were performed at 9 weeks’ gestation and almost all abortions were performed at less than 13 weeks’ gestation.
More than half of the abortions were early medical abortions at or less than 9 weeks’ gestation and more than half were surgical abortions at or less than 13 weeks’ gestation.
Surgical abortions at 13 weeks’ gestation accounted for just 6.9% of all abortions in 2022, and medication abortions at 9 weeks’ gestation were 4.3%.
According to the report, black women had the highest percentage of abortions at 39.5%, followed by white women at 31.9% and Hispanic women at 21.2%.
Black women had 24.4 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 and white women had 5.7 abortions per 1,000 women.
Jacobs said there have been gains in providing care to marginalized groups, but factors including disparate access to quality family planning services may account for higher abortion rates for black women compared to white women.
“If you have access to highly effective contraceptives, you have (fewer) unintended pregnancies,” she said.
By 2022, 87.7% of abortions were among unmarried women, compared to 12.3% among married women, the report said.
In addition, the majority of abortions, or 40.6%, occurred among women who had never previously had a live birth, and the majority, or 56.1%, occurred among those who had never had an abortion before.
In a 2021 review of data from the CDC’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System, five women died from complications of legally induced abortions this past year.
From Wednesday, 13 states have closed almost all abortion services and four states have enacted six-week bans, according to ABC News. Meanwhile, nine states and the District of Columbia have no restrictions based on length of pregnancy.
