The total number of abortions fell 2% nationwide from 2021 to 2022, according to the latest available data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2021, there were 622,108 recorded abortions from 46 states reporting data and New York City. That number dropped to 609,360 in 2022, according to the report.
The Supreme Court ended a federal right to abortion in June 2022.
Each year, the CDC requests abortion data from the central health agencies for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City. The 2022 report includes data from 46 states, D.C., and New York City. California, Maryland, New Hampshire and New Jersey did not provide data for the 2022 report.
According to the data, the abortion rate, or the number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, decreased 3% from 2021 to 2022. The abortion ratio, or the number of abortions per 1,000 live births, also fell 2% during the same period.
The report found that 78.6% of abortions in 2022 were performed at or before nine weeks gestation, and 92.8% were performed at or before 13 weeks gestation.
Among abortions performed in 2022, 53.3% were through medication at or before nine weeks gestation, followed by 35.5% that were performed surgically at or before 13 weeks. Just 6.9% of surgical abortions in 2022 were performed past 13 weeks and 4.3% of medicated abortions were performed past nine weeks.
The CDC found that for abortions occurring at or before nine weeks gestation in 2022, approximately 70.2% were through medication. The percentage of abortions performed by early medication increased 129% from 2013 to 2022, according to the report, and 4% from 2021 to 2022.
According to the reporting areas, women in their 20s accounted for more than half of all abortions in 2022.
Reported ethnicity data showed that Black women accounted for the highest percentage of abortions, at nearly 40%, and white women accounted for the second-highest percentage at nearly 32%. Nearly 9-in-10 women who obtained abortions were unmarried, according to the data.
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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