Abortion statistics

Number of abortions per year: Approximately 42 Million
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 115,000

Where abortions occur:83% of all abortions are obtained in developing countries and 17% occur in developed countries.

© Copyright 1996-2008, The Alan Guttmacher Institute. (www.agi-usa.org)

UNITED STATES

Number of abortions per year: 1.37 Million (1996)
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 3,700

Who’s having abortions (age)?52%
of women obtaining abortions in the U.S. are younger than 25: Women
aged 20-24 obtain 32% of all abortions; Teenagers obtain 20% and girls
under 15 account for 1.2%.

Who’s having abortions (race)?While
white women obtain 60% of all abortions, their abortion rate is well
below that of minority women. Black women are more than 3 times as
likely as white women to have an abortion, and Hispanic women are
roughly 2 times as likely.

Who’s having abortions (marital status)?64.4%
of all abortions are performed on never-married women; Married women
account for 18.4% of all abortions and divorced women obtain 9.4%.

Who’s having abortions (religion)?Women
identifying themselves as Protestants obtain 37.4% of all abortions in
the U.S.; Catholic women account for 31.3%, Jewish women account for
1.3%, and women with no religious affiliation obtain 23.7% of all
abortions. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify
themselves as “Born-again/Evangelical”.

Who’s having abortions (income)?Women
with family incomes less than $15,000 obtain 28.7% of all abortions;
Women with family incomes between $15,000 and $29,999 obtain 19.5%;
Women with family incomes between $30,000 and $59,999 obtain 38.0%;
Women with family incomes over $60,000 obtain 13.8%.

Why women have abortions1%
of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur
because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or
child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i.e. the
child is unwanted or inconvenient).

At what gestational ages are abortions performed:52%
of all abortions occur before the 9th week of pregnancy, 25% happen
between the 9th & 10th week, 12% happen between the 11th and 12th
week, 6% happen between the 13th & 15th week, 4% happen between the
16th & 20th week, and 1% of all abortions (16,450/yr.) happen after
the 20th week of pregnancy.

Likelihood of abortion:An
estimated 43% of all women will have at least 1 abortion by the time
they are 45 years old. 47% of all abortions are performed on women who
have had at least one previous abortion.