On this page, you’ll find abortion statistics published by the CDC and the Guttmacher Institute, along with links to national abortion polls tracking public opinion on abortion. You can also review Planned Parenthood’s annual reports detailing their abortion data and access pro-life research from the National Right to Life Committee on the current status of abortion in the United States.
Abortion in the United States
Sources of Abortion Statistics
The two main sources of abortion statistics in the United States are the Guttmacher Institute and the CDC. Guttmacher gathers data directly from abortion providers and publishes detailed analyses on abortion incidence, demographics, and trends, while the CDC compiles abortion data voluntarily reported by the states, resulting in lower totals. Additional context on abortion trends can also be found in Planned Parenthood annual reports and National Right to Life Committee summaries.
The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI), up until 2007, was a research division of Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest
abortion provider. They still actively seek out statistics from abortion providers nationwide, and publish extensive statistical analyses on their website. These
statistical summaries give information on how many abortions there are, who gets them, and why they get them. For a summary, see
https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-united-states.
See also Trends in Abortion in
the United States, 1973-2008 (Guttmacher Institute - pdf)
The other source of statistics is the
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), located in Atlanta, Georgia. This
institute of the federal government receives from individual states, on a voluntary basis, a report on the statistics regarding abortion in that state.
Summaries of this information are available to the public on a regular basis -- for example, the report on
abortion surveillance, and the report on
pregnancy mortality surveillance. Because reporting to the CDC is voluntary, their numbers for
abortion statistics are lower than those of AGI.
Planned Parenthood Annual Reports: [2023-2024] [2022-2023] [2021-2022] [2020-2021] [2019-2020 Report] [2018-2019] [2017-2018]
National Right to Life Committee: The Status of Abortion in the United States[2025] [2024]
Public Opinion Polls on Abortion in the United States
Opinion tracking of the American
public about abortion is another area of statistical analysis. The Gallup
Organization (www.gallup.com) has conducted
an in-depth analysis of American public opinion on abortion and made their
summary available to the public. You can read more polls on abortion and
birth control from various sources at
www.pollingreport.com/abortion.htm.
Click here for polls from various sources that contain one or more questions about abortion and reflect the opinions of the American people on this issue.
Learn More: Abortion Facts and Reports
Compare the number of abortions to other causes
of death
Late term abortions are more
frequent than reported by the media.