News
Featured Image
 aslysun/Shutterstock

Editor’s Note: When you finish reading this article, please consider donating to our Fall Appeal so that LifeSiteNews can continue its mission.

(Live Action) — The media has been spewing out stories right and left about women who have allegedly experienced life-threatening medical emergencies that supposedly warranted induced abortions, yet were unable to obtain them. You can see how our Live Action News team has fact-checked and/or debunked many of those stories here.

In addition, polls featuring vague and skewed wording continue to paint a confusing and illogical picture about the American public’s feelings about abortion at various gestational ages, after certain developmental milestones, and for various reasons. Commonly, even people who consider themselves “pro-life” say that they would allow abortion for reasons of rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother (despite the fact that intentional killing is not medically necessary).

According to a new report, these “exceptions” continue to make up a very small percentage of the total number of abortions in the U.S. every year. Most U.S. abortions are elective abortion procedures, done for reasons other than these commonly accepted “exceptions.”

READ: California sues Catholic hospital for refusing to abort 15-week-old twins

Research group claims 95% of abortions are elective

Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) Senior Research Associate Tessa Cox told Live Action News that the “official state data” the organization has reviewed in the past “shows that the vast majority of abortions, more than 95%, are for elective or unspecified reasons.”

“Less than 5% of abortions are performed because the mother or unborn baby has a physical health condition or because the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest,” Cox added.

Lozier’s report noted that just 0.4 percent of abortions are done due to rape, and 0.3 percent are done due to a risk to the woman’s life or major bodily function:

Abortion Reasons (Graph: Charlotte Lozier Institute)
Abortion Reasons (Graph: Charlotte Lozier Institute)

Cox pointed out that “many states don’t report reasons for abortions, and some large states like California don’t report any abortion data at all.”

What state data show

In 2023, the Guttmacher Institute found that “16 states require providers to give some information about the patient’s reason for seeking the procedure.” Out of those states, the former “special affiliate” to Planned Parenthood found:

  • 11 states ask whether the abortion was performed because of a threat to the patient’s health or life.
  • Eight states ask whether the abortion was performed because of rape or incest.
  • 15 states ask whether the abortion was performed because of a diagnosed fetal abnormality.
  • Nine states ask whether the abortion was performed for other reasons (e.g. the patient’s economic or familial circumstances).

For this report, Live Action News looked at the states which collect abortion data by reason, and found the following:

Alaska (2023) – The state does not seek reasons for abortion generally, but asks the question, “Was This Termination Elected Due to the Detection of a Congenital Anomaly?” and “Type of Congenital Anomaly.”

Less than 1 percent of abortions committed in Alaska in 2022 were for “congenital anomalies” and none were reported in 2023:

Alaska abortion by reason 2023
Alaska abortion by reason 2023

Arizona (2022)

  • 8,963 abortions committed because “abortion is elective.”
  • 90 for fetal health/medical considerations.
  • 40 for domestic violence.
  • 40 for sexual assault.
  • 2,611 declined to specify a reason.

2,442 abortions were listed in the “other” reasons category. These included 1,581 who “didn’t want to have children,” 150 who felt “unprepared” or “not ready” for children, 70 called it a “timing issue,” 150 gave “financial reasons,” 324 referred to “personal/emotional health,” 10 said the “father doesn’t want child/lack of support” and more. Additional reasons can be seen in the image below. Out of the 340 listed for “maternal health,” 258 were not specific and were categorized as “unknown” reasons.

Arizona abortion by reason 2022
Arizona abortion by reason 2022

READ: Judge strikes down Georgia’s 6 week abortion ban as ‘unconstitutional’

Florida (2023) – Over 71 percent of total reported abortions in Florida (84,052) were reported as “elective” in 2023. This is a slight decrease from the 74 percent committed for elective reasons in 2021.

Out of the 59,901 recorded in 2023, nearly 55,000 babies aborted for “elective reasons” in Florida were killed during the first trimester. In the second trimester, 5,109 were aborted for “elective reasons.”

Less than 0.3 percent were for “Life Endangering Physical Condition (251),” and less than 1 percent were for either “incest (11)” or “rape (107)” or “fetal anomaly (141)” combined.

Florida abortion by reason 2023
Florida abortion by reason 2023

Hawaii (year reported)  While Guttmacher lists the state as tracking abortions for reasons of “fetal anomaly,” CLI has found that state reports are lagging, and they have been unable to obtain a copy for several years.

Illinois (2022) – While Guttmacher claimed that the state was tracking “other” reasons for abortions, the current published year does not contain this information. Older reporting forms indicate the state was gathering some data, asking whether the abortion was the “patient’s request” or “other.”

Louisiana (2022) – The state reported that out of 4,570 abortions recorded by reason, 1,350 (30 percent) were for “mental health of mother,” 103 (2.25 percent) for “physical health of mother,” less than 1 percent for “risk of fetal deformity (10)” and “rape or incest (21).”

In addition, 3,086 (66 percent) were categorized as “other,” which includes elective.

Louisiana abortion by reason 2022

Minnesota (2022) – 12,175 abortions were committed in the state that year. Due to women selecting more than one reason, the data shows 14,768 abortions by reason.

This means that less than 1 percent were for rape or incest, while nearly 50 percent were because the client did not “want” children. Nearly 26 percent refused to specify a reason.

In addition, slightly more than 11 percent involved the emotional (7 percent) or physical health (4 percent) of the mother.

In the “other” category, women listed education and career, relationships, and feeling unready for children as reasons for seeking abortions.

Minnesota abortion by reason 2022

READ: Washington Post publishes op-ed admitting late-term abortions are ‘not a myth’

previous Live Action News report found that less than 1 percent of total reported abortions in Minnesota (10,136) in 2021 were committed for rape (44) or incest (11), while 54 percent of abortions were committed because the mother “d[id] not want children at this time.”

Nebraska (2023) – The state recorded 2,325 abortions committed that year. Because women may have selected more than one reason, the total reasons listed came to 2,684.

According to the report, nearly 7 percent of women claimed “contraceptive failure” led to their abortions, while over 12 percent admitted that a failure to use contraception was their reason for abortion. In addition, 42 percent of women listed “socio-economic” reasons. Nearly 23 percent “declined to answer” or give a reason.

Less than 1 percent of abortions were committed due to “maternal life endangered,” “emergency situation,” or “fetal anomaly.” These reasons combined totaled less than 2 percent of these reasons given. Sexual assault (0.63 percent) and incest (0.07 percent) were also less than 1 percent of abortions.

“Maternal physical health” accounted for 5 percent and “mental health” was recorded at over 8 percent.

Nebraska abortion by reason 2023
Nebraska abortion by reason 2023

New Jersey (year unknown) – According to Guttmacher, New Jersey tracks abortions committed for reasons of fetal abnormalities; however, the data was not publicly available.

New York (unknown) – Guttmacher claims the state tracks abortions for reasons of the health and life of the mother or fetal abnormalities; however, this data is not among the state’s public information.

North Dakota (2022) – In 2023, the state’s vital records department revealed that abortions had decreased substantially, but the state was unable to publish a report. Previous years’ reports did not show abortions by reasons, despite Guttmacher claiming they did require the data.

Oklahoma (2022) – In 2022, there were more than 2,160 answers by reason, because the individual could provide multiple answers.

  • Shockingly, and despite the abortion industry claim that sex selective abortions do not occur, there were seven women who selected that they wanted to abort because “Mother wanted a child from a different sex.”
  • Lack of support from the husband or father as well as lack of finances for the woman was also among the many reasons listed.
  • Tragically, 424 women claimed it was their husband or partner who wanted the abortion.

In 2023, the state showed zero abortions were recorded.

Oklahoma abortion by reason 2022

South Dakota (2022) – The data showed that between 2018-2022, rape and incest accounted for between <1 percent up to as high as 3 percent of abortions in the state. Physical harm to the mother was the reason given by between 2 percent or as high as 3.6 percent of women seeking abortions.

The majority of abortions between 2018-2022 were committed because:

  • Mother did not desire to have the child (ranging between 63.9 percent to as high as 70.4 percent).
  • Mother could not afford the child (ranging between 46.4 percent to as high as 51.8 percent).
  • Emotional health was unstable (ranging from 17 percent to as high as 23.4 percent).

The state reported zero abortions in 2023.

S Dakota abortion by reason 2018 to 2022

READ: Trudeau again brags about his government’s unwavering commitment to abortion

Utah (2021) – The state reported that “In 2021, there were nine choices for ‘Reasons for an abortion.’”

The reasons selected most often were socio-economic (1,474), elective (925), or contraception failure (447). These three reasons (2,846) together made up 96 percent of the 2,978 reasons for women living in Utah to have an abortion.

Abortions reported for rape made up less than half a percent, and none were reported for maternal life endangered.

Tragically, of the babies who were aborted at or after 21-weeks of gestation, nine were for “socio-economic reasons,” five for “fetal malformation,” and 24 were “not stated.”

Utah abortion by reason 2021

Virginia (2022) – Guttmacher claims the state tracks some reporting by reason; however, public documents do not include this data.

Washington (2022) – Guttmacher claims the state tracks some reporting by reason; however, public documents do not include this data.

West Virginia (2023) – Guttmacher claims the state tracks some reporting by reason; however, public documents do not include this data. The state recorded just four (4) abortions in 2023.

READ: 3 more peaceful pro-lifers sentenced over ‘sit-in’ protest at Tennessee abortion facility

Abortions for “contraceptive failure” totaled 471 in Nebraska in 2020 but fell to 180 by 2023. In Utah, while 76 “contraceptive failure” abortions were recorded in 2019, they rose to 447 by 2021.

“Assessing the number of abortions performed for various reasons can be challenging due to the poor quality of U.S. abortion data resulting from inconsistent reporting requirements,” CLI noted.

Cox suggested, “To provide an accurate picture of abortion trends post-Dobbs, all states should report this information.”

Reprinted with permission from Live Action.

2 Comments

    Loading...