Abortions up 10% Since 2020, with Over 1 Million Reported in 2023, New Report Says

Mar. 15, 2025

Mifepristone (Mifeprex) and Misoprostol, the two drugs used in a medication abortion.Photo:ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images

The number of abortions in the U.S. has gone up significantly from 2020 to 2023 — despite several states implementingabortion banssince the overturning ofRoe v. Wadein 2022, a new report said.

“That’s the highest number in over a decade, [and] the first time there have been over a million abortions provided in the U.S. formal health care system since 2012,” Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist with Guttmacher, toldNPR.

The study noted that in states restricting abortion access like Arizona and Georgia, the number of abortions has gone down. Arizona and Georgia each showed a 10% and 22% decrease in abortions. Wisconsin and Indiana, states where total bans were in effect for much of 2023, also had big decreases.

The study also showed that the number of people traveling out of states with total abortion bans to bordering states and to all other states in general went up from 9% to 16%. Researchers at Guttmacher Institute noted that over 160,000 patients traveled out of state to get an abortion in 2023.

“It is very possible that, while access was dramatically curtailed for people living in ban states, access substantially improved for residents of states without bans,” the study’s researchers wrote.

Some experts think that the number of abortions could actually be much higher than the numbers recorded in the study due to abortion medications. “This is probably an undercount because they are not looking at abortions that happen outside of the formal health care system,” Dr. Anitra Beasley, an OB-GYN and professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told NPR.

Maddow-Zimet also admitted to the outlet that the “increase in the availability of medication abortion through telemedicine” is a “big part of this story” as it is “much more available now” than in 2020.

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He added, “But we also saw increases in the proportion of abortions provided through medication abortion at brick-and-mortar facilities as well.”

According to another report fromGuttmacher Institute, there were approximately 642,700 medication abortions reported in the United States in 2023, which accounted for 63% of all abortions in the U.S.’s formal healthcare system, up from 53% in 2020.

Guttmacher Institute wrote that the new study ultimately shows that people will “continue to seek” abortions “in spite of the policy barriers that anti-abortion policymakers impose.” It urged lawmakers to “pass robust laws that support people’s ability to access abortion care with dignity and respect.”

source: people.com