More Facts

Click here to view JFA's "What Are the Facts?" page.

Who Has Abortions?  How Many Abortions?  Why Do Women Have Abortions?

• If the abortion rate in the year studied continued, about 24% of women of childbearing age in a given year will have an abortion at some point in their lifetime.

  • Note: This stat is a bit complicated, so we suggest reading the linked study. Please drop us a note in our contact form if you think we’ve misrepresented it.

  • Jones R.K., Jerman, J., “Population Group Abortion Rates and Lifetime Incidence of Abortion: United States, 2008–2014,” American Journal of Public Health, 107, 1904_1909, November 08, 2017 (107, 1904_1909)

• About 2.8 million women in the United States experience unintended pregnancy each year. (Unintended Pregnancy in the United States, Guttmacher Institute, January 2019)

• Sophia Chae, Sheila Desai , Marjorie Crowell, Gilda Sedgh: "Reasons why women have induced abortions: a synthesis of findings from 14 countries," Contraception, Vol. 96, Issue 4, P233-241, October 01, 2017

• Guttmacher Institute Fact Sheet: Induced Abortion in the United States (Sept. 2019)

• Jones R.K., Witwer E., Jerman J., “Abortion Incidence and Service Availability in the United States, 2017,” Guttmacher Institute, 2019

• "Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients in 2014 and Changes Since 2008," (Jerman J, Jones RK and Onda T, Guttmacher Institute, 2016). Or, click here for the PDF Version.

• "Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives," (Finer et. al., Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, September 2005)

  • "Reasons U.S. Women Have Abortions: Quantitative and Qualitative Perspectives," (Finer et. al., Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, September 2005) - PDF Version

• "Who Seeks Abortion at or after 20 Weeks," (Foster et. al., Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, 4 November 2013)

  • Notable quotes:

    • "Most women seeking later abortion fit at least one of five profiles: They were raising children alone, were depressed or using illicit substances, were in conflict with a male partner or experiencing domestic violence, had trouble deciding and then had access problems, or were young and nulliparous."

    • "...data suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment."

• Number of Abortions (per 10 seconds)

Religious Affiliation of Those Seeking Abortions

• "Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients in 2014 and Changes Since 2008," (Jerman J, Jones RK and Onda T, Guttmacher Institute, 2016). Or, click here for the PDF Version.

  • In this study of women getting abortions, the following percentages selected a religious affiliation:

    • 17.3 Mainline Protestant

    • 12.8 Evangelical Protestant

    • 23.7 Roman Catholic

  • This is the latest data as of October 2020 according to “People of All Religions Use Birth Control and Have Abortions” (Oct. 2020 - Guttmacher), accessed October 2022.

What Percentage of Women Will Get an Abortion in Their Lifetime?

• Some data suggest 24% of women will get an abortion in their lifetime (almost 1 in 4) — Note that this estimate is related to the numbers of abortion and the abortion rate in 2014.

  • Rachel K. Jones and Jenna Jerman, “Population Group Abortion Rates and Lifetime Incidence of Abortion: United States, 2008–2014",” American Journal of Public Health 107, 2017 (“If the 2014 age-specific abortion rates prevail, 24% of women aged 15 to 44 years in that year will have an abortion by age 45 years.”)

Repeat Abortions

• "Repeat Abortion in the United States," (Jones et. al., Guttmacher Institute, November 2006)

• Jones, et. al. "Patterns in the Socioeconomic Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions in 2000–2001"

• "Patterns in the Socioeconomic Characteristics of Women Obtaining Abortions in 2000–2001," (Jones et. al., Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, September/October 2002)

United States (State Abortion Facts & State Abortion Laws)

• Guttmacher’s State-by-State webpage

• Texas: "State Facts About Abortion: Texas" (Fact Sheet), (Guttmacher Institute, July 2017)

• Georgia: "State Facts About Abortion: Georgia" (Fact Sheet), (Guttmacher Institute, July 2017)

• Kansas: "State Facts About Abortion: Kansas" (Fact Sheet), (Guttmacher Institute, July 2017)

• Oklahoma: "State Facts About Abortion: Oklahoma" (Fact Sheet), (Guttmacher Institute, July 2017)

• California: "State Facts About Abortion: California" (Fact Sheet), (Guttmacher Institute, July 2017)

• New York

  • New York amended its abortion laws in January 2019. Update coming soon.

  • New York 2014 (by Race/Ethnicity): "Induced Abortion Summary by Woman's Race/Ethnicity - New York State 2014," (New York State Department of Health, March 2016)

  • New York 2014 (by Woman's Age): "Induced Abortion by Woman's Age - New York State 2014," (New York State Department of Health, March 2016)

  • New York 2014 (Other Tables): "Induced Abortions" (Tables 19-25) in "Vital Statistics of New York State 2014," (New York State Department of Health)

• Abort73's Excellent Instagram Page on Abortion Numbers by State (#stateabortionfacts)

More State Laws

• Summary of All States: "An Overview of Abortion Laws," (Guttmacher Institute, as of 1 January 2019)

  • "An Overview of Abortion Laws," (Guttmacher Institute, as of 1 January 2019) - Printer-friendly version

• State Policies on Ultrasound: "Requirements for Ultrasound," (Guttmacher Institute, as of 1 October 2017)

• State Policies on Later Abortions: "State Policies on Later Abortions," (Guttmacher Institute, as of 1 January 2019)

• Fetal Homicide Laws: “State Laws on Fetal Homicide and Penalty-enhancement for Crimes Against Pregnant Women” - National Conference of State Legislatures

Global Facts

• Global Abortion Laws: "A Global Review of Laws on Induced Abortion, 1985-1997," (Rahman et. al., International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, June 1998)

• Global Abortion Rates: "Recent Trends in Abortion Rates Worldwide," (Henshaw et. al., International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, March 1999)

• Global (Worldwide) Abortion Numbers: "Induced Abortion Worldwide" (Fact Sheet), (Guttmacher Institute, September 2017)

• India: "The incidence of abortion and unintended pregnancy in India, 2015," (Singh, Susheela et. al., The Lancet Global Health, January 2018)

PUBLIC OPINION

• Gallup Summary

• Polling Report (Abortion Poll Aggregator)

Older Studies (for Reference)

• "Characteristics of U.S. Abortion Patients, 2008," (Jones RK et. al., Guttmacher Institute, May 2010)

• "Abortion Incidence and Access to Services in the United States, 2008," (Jones RK and Kooistra K, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, March 2011) - now behind subscriber wall

• "Abortion Incidence and Service Availability In the United States, 2014," (Jones RK and Jerman J, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, March 2017)

• "Induced Abortion in the United States" (Fact Sheet), (Guttmacher Institute, January 2017)