Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals a modest 2% decrease in abortions in the United States during 2022, the year the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and returned abortion regulation to individual states. This translates to a drop from approximately 622,000 abortions in 2021 to 609,000 in 2022.
The CDC report indicates that the abortion rate decreased by 3%, and the abortion ratio (number of abortions per 1,000 live births) also fell by 2%. This occurred despite several Republican-led states enacting abortion bans following the Supreme Court's decision, although many of these bans include exceptions for medical emergencies.
Mirroring pre-Roe v. Wade trends, over 70% of abortions in 2022 were early medication abortions, and most occurred before nine weeks of gestation. The CDC data also shows that over half of the abortions were performed on women in their 20s, and nearly 60% of these women had previously given birth.
A small percentage of abortions, slightly over 6%, took place between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy, while approximately 1% occurred at or after 21 weeks. The CDC's report encompasses data collected from 47 U.S. regions that have consistently reported abortion statistics from 2013 to 2022.
