U.S. Abortion Statistics By Year (1973-Current)

National Right to Life Committee, 2023
THE CONSEQUENCES OF ROE V. WADE TOTAL ABORTIONS SINCE 1973: Based on numbers reported by the Guttmacher Institute 1973-2020, with 3 percent added for GI estimated possible 3-5 percent undercount for 1973-2014. Another 12,000 per year added for 2015-2017 for abortions from “providers” GI says it may have missed in 2015-2017 counts. 2022 estimate projects drops from states with trigger laws since Dobbs [1/23] |
Reported Annual Abortions 1973-2020
There are two basic courses on abortion data in the U.S.:
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) publishes yearly, but relies on voluntary reports from state health departments (and New York City, Washington, D.C.). It has been missing data from California, New Hampshire, and at least one other state since 1998.
- The Guttmacher Institute (GI) contacts abortion clinics directly for data but does not always survey every year.
- Because it surveys clinics directly and includes data from all 50 states, most researchers believe Guttmacher’s numbers to be more reliable, though Guttmacher still believes it may miss some abortions.
While both Guttmacher and the CDC show big drops over the last 30 years, recent years show increases.
- Total abortions dropped 29.8 percent from 1998 to 2020 with the CDC, and fell 42.2 percent from 1990 to 2020 with GI.
- The abortion rate for 2020 for GI was 14.4 abortions for every 1,000 women of reproductive (15-44), less than half that of the high of 29.3 in 1981. While up since 2017 (13.5), it is still lower than when abortion was legalized in the U.S. in 1973 (16.3).
- GI says there were 20.6 abortions for every 100 pregnancies ending in live birth or abortion in 2020, up from 18.3 in 2016, the lowest abortion ratio since 1972.
- GI says that abortion “providers” rose slightly to 1,603 in 2020 from 1,587 in 2017. The high was 2,918 in 1982.
- According to the GI, more than half (53 percent) of aboritons were done with chemical abortifacients like mifepristone in 2020. It had been just 16.4 percent as recently as 2008.
- In June 2022, Dobbs overturned Roe, activating “trigger laws” in some states offering the unborn full protection or otherwise limiting abortion. Many clinics closed, but some women went to other states or ordered abortion pills online.
Reported Annual Abortions – 1973-2022
YEAR GI CDC 1973 744,610 615,831 1974 898,570 763,476 1975 1,034,170 854,853 1976 1,179,300 988,267 1977 1,316,700 1,079,430 1978 1,409,600 1,157,776 1979 1,497,670 1,251,921 1980 1,553,890 1,297,606 1981 1,577,340 1,300,760 1982 1,573,920 1,303,980 1983 1,575,000 1,268,987 1984 1,577,180 1,333,521 1985 1,588,550 1,328,570 1986 1,574,000 1,328,112 1987 1,559,110 1,353,671 1988 1,590,750 1,371,285 1989 1,566,900 1,396,658 1990 1,608,600 1,429,247 1991 1,556,510 1,388,937 1992 1,528,930 1,359,146 1993 1,495,000 1,330,414 1994 1,423,000 1,267,415 1995 1,359,400 1,210,883 1996 1,360,160 1,225,937 1997 1,335,000 1,186,039 1998 1,319,000 884,273 * 1999 1,314,800 861,789 * 2000 1,312,990 857,475 * 2001 1,291,000 853,485 * 2002 1,269,000 854,122 * 2003 1,250,000 848,163 * 2004 1,222,100 839,226 * 2005 1,206,200 820,151 * 2006 1,242,200 846,181 * 2007 1,209,640 827,609 * 2008 1,212,350 825,564 * 2009 1,151,600 789,116 * 2010 1,102,670 765,651 * 2011 1,058,490 730,322 * 2012 1,011,000 699,202 * 2013 958,700 664,435 * 2014 926,190 652,639 * 2015 899,500 638,169 * 2016 874,100 623,471 * 2017 862,320 612,719 * 2018 871,806 ** 619,591 * 2019 916,160 629,898 * 2020 930,160 620,327 * 2021 930,160 ** 2022 900,414 **
* Excludes NH, CA, and at least one other state
** NRLC projection for calculation
Updated: January 2023
National Right to Life — Abortion Statistics: United States Data and Trends, January 2023
The report is available from the National Right to Life Communications Department here: http://www.nrlc.org/uploads/communications/stateofabortion2023.pdf
Trying to find abortion stats for 2016, 2017 and 2018
Hi Sheila, go to National Right to Life for the stats. This organization compiles the yearly information. Thanks!
This іs a nice rеview! Certainly a must-reaԁ and an eye-opener!
It jᥙst hеlped me thanks so much.
How many babies have been aborted approximately per year in the United States?
From the information above: Total abortions fell below 1 million for the first time in 2013 and have continued downward to 862,320 in the most recent figures for 2017.
Is the chart shown on this page an original compilation by Christian Life Resources, or is there a link to the data from the Guttmacher Institute and the CDC? I would like to be able to provide a citation to people I interact with that defend abortion. Thank you.
Hi, Scott – the statistics listed here are compiled from National Right to Life https://www.nrlc.org/ Thank you!
Over 63 million in total in 50years kind of sickening who knows what one of those babies could have grown up to be president Nobel prize winner a researcher that could have cured many dieses that effect mankind and remember that number is only the US