The number of abortions in the U.S. only slightly dropped in 2022, the year the Supreme Court overturned Roe. v. Wade, returning the power to make laws on abortion access back to the states.
Abortions declined by just 2% in 2022 compared to 2021, according to new surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The abortion rate also dipped by 3% and the abortion ratio decreased by 2%.
The total dropped from about 622,000 abortions in 2021 to 609,000 in 2022, the data revealed.
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This, as Republican-led states have enacted abortion bans with some exceptions such as medical emergencies after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling.
Most of the abortions were reported before nine weeks of pregnancy and more than 70% were early medication abortions, which was similar to the numbers from before Roe v. Wade was overturned, according to the data.
More than 6% of abortions happened between 14 and 20 weeks of pregnancy while about 1% were done either at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, the CDC said in its report.
Women in their 20s made up more than half of abortions, the CDC said.
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The report also said that nearly 60% of the women who had abortions had also given birth before, the data revealed.
The CDC data includes numbers from 47 areas of the U.S. that have published data from 2013 until 2022.
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