Abortions are one of the most common medical procedures worldwide. Roughly 73 million induced abortions take place globally each year, and in the United States alone, an estimated 1,126,000 abortions were provided in 2025. About one in four American women will have an abortion by age 45 if current rates hold steady.
Global and U.S. Numbers
Worldwide, about 61% of all unintended pregnancies end in abortion. That translates to 73 million procedures per year across countries with widely varying legal frameworks and healthcare systems.
In the United States, the 2025 abortion rate was 16.7 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44. To put that in perspective, roughly 1 in 60 women of reproductive age had an abortion that year. Lifetime estimates are even more striking: researchers using the 2021-2022 Abortion Patient Survey calculated that 24.7% of women aged 15 to 44 would have an abortion by age 45 if rates remained constant.
When Most Abortions Happen
The vast majority of abortions in the U.S. occur early in pregnancy. In 2022, 53.3% were medication abortions performed at nine weeks of gestation or earlier, and another 35.5% were surgical abortions at 13 weeks or earlier. Procedures after 13 weeks accounted for about 6.9% of all abortions, with surgical methods at later gestations making up nearly all of those cases. Abortions past 21 weeks are rare.
Medication abortion has grown sharply. Among pregnancies eligible for the method (nine weeks or earlier), 70.2% were managed with medication in 2022. The share of all abortions performed via medication increased 129% between 2013 and 2022.
Who Has Abortions
Abortion patients span every age group, income level, and family situation, but the demographics are not evenly distributed. Women aged 20 to 24 account for the largest share at 33.6%, followed by those 25 to 29 at 26.5%. Teenagers (15 to 19) represent about 11.7%, and patients under 15 make up less than 1%. Women 30 and older account for roughly 28% combined.
Income plays a significant role. In 2014, nearly half of all abortion patients (49.4%) had family incomes below the federal poverty line, and another 25.7% fell between 100% and 199% of the poverty threshold. Women living in poverty also had the highest abortion rate of any group examined: 36.6 per 1,000.
A common misconception is that most people seeking abortions don’t have children. In fact, about 59% of abortion patients in 2014 had already given birth at least once, and a third had two or more previous births.
Why People Seek Abortions
A study of 954 abortion patients identified several overlapping reasons. Financial concerns topped the list at 40%, with respondents citing general inability to afford raising a child. Timing was the second most common theme at 36%, with patients saying it simply wasn’t the right moment in their lives. Partner-related reasons came next at 31%, followed by the need to focus on existing children at 29%.
About 20% said a pregnancy would interfere with future opportunities like education or career goals, and 19% said they weren’t emotionally or mentally prepared. Health-related reasons, including both maternal health concerns and fetal health issues, were cited by 12% of respondents. Most patients gave more than one reason, reflecting the layered decision-making involved.
Safety of Legal Abortion
Legal abortion in the United States is a low-risk procedure. Complications occur in approximately 2% of cases, and only about one in four of those (roughly 0.5% of all abortions) requires additional procedural intervention or hospitalization. For medication abortions specifically, the main complication is an ongoing pregnancy, which happens in about 0.5% of cases.
Risk increases with gestational age, which is one reason the overwhelming majority of abortions are performed in the first trimester. Early medication abortion, now the most common method, involves taking pills rather than undergoing a procedure in a clinical setting.
How Access Has Shifted After Dobbs
Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision removed federal abortion protections, access has become heavily dependent on geography. In 2024, 155,000 people traveled out of state for abortion care, representing 15% of all patients obtaining abortions in states without total bans. That number was up from a pre-Dobbs baseline of 81,000 out-of-state travelers in 2020, though it declined slightly from a peak of nearly 170,000 in 2023.
Illinois became a critical access point, with 35,470 patients traveling from across the South and Midwest in 2024. More than 28,000 Texans crossed state lines for care, some going as far as Maryland, Michigan, New York, and Washington. After Florida enacted tighter restrictions, the number of Floridians traveling to Virginia jumped from 130 in 2023 to 1,620 in 2024, and travel to North Carolina surged from 210 to 1,320 over the same period.
These travel patterns mean that total abortion numbers in the U.S. have not dropped as dramatically as state-level bans might suggest. Instead, the burden has shifted: people in restrictive states now face longer wait times, higher costs, and significant travel to reach providers in states where the procedure remains legal.