U.S. Abortion Statistics By Year (1973-Current)
National Right to Life Committee, 2022
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THE CONSEQUENCES OF ROE V. WADE TOTAL ABORTIONS SINCE 1973: Based on numbers reported by the Guttmacher Institute 1973-2017, with 3 percent added for GI estimated possible 3-5 percent undercount for 1973-2014. Another 12,000 per year added for 2015-2020 for abortions from “providers” GI says it may have missed in 2015-2017 counts. [1/22] |
Reported Annual Abortions
There are two basic courses on abortion incidence in the United States:
- 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 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.
Both the CDC and Guttmacher show significant recent drops and sustained drops over the last 25 years.
- Total abortions dropped 28.8 percent from 1998 to 2019 with the CDC, and fell 46.4 percent from 1990 to 2017 with GI.
- 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.
- The abortion rate for 2017 for GI was 13.5 abortions for every 1,000 women of reproductive age (15-44), less than half what it was in 1981 (29.3) and even lower that when abortion was legalized in the U.S. in 1973 (16.3).
- Guttmacher says there were 18.3 abortions for every 100 pregnancies ending in live birth or abortion in 2016, 18.4 for 2017, lower abortion ratios than any since 1972.
- Guttmacher says that the number of abortion “providers” has dropped from a high of 2,918 in 1982 to 1,587 in 2017.
- According to the CDC, the percentage performed with chemical abortifacients like mifepristone rose from 9.8 percent in 2004 to 43.7 percent in 2019.
Reported Annual Abortions – 1973-2020
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 * 2019-20 886,677 ** 619,898 *
* Excludes NH, CA, and at least one other state
** NRLC projection for calculation
Updated: January 2022
National Right to Life — Abortion Statistics: United States Data and Trends, January 2022
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!
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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.