Abortions continued rising in 2024 despite state bans: Report

(The Hill) – More women were able to access abortion care in 2024 than the previous year despite state bans, reflecting a continued increase in the three years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report issued Monday. 

The latest report from the #WeCount project of the Society of Family Planning, which supports abortion access, found there were about 1.14 million abortions provided by licensed clinicians across the U.S. in 2024, compared with 1.06 million in 2023. 

The report was released a day before the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision ended the nearly 50-year constitutional right to an abortion. #WeCount began after Roe was overturned and has been tracking abortions since 2022.  

However, the 2022 numbers don’t include January through March, when abortions are traditionally at their highest. 

In-person care at brick-and-mortar clinics represented the majority of abortion care, even though the number of abortions has fallen to near zero in states that enforce bans.

The number of abortions using medication prescribed and delivered through telehealth has continued to increase since April 2022 and now makes up 1 in 4 procedures. Prior to the Dobbs ruling, about 1 in 20 abortions were accessed through telehealth. 

About half of the telehealth abortions last year were facilitated by the shield laws in some Democratic-controlled states. Shield laws protect medical providers and others from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions regarding abortions and gender-affirming care. 

An average of 12,330 abortions per month were provided under shield laws by the end of 2024, the report found.  

The report’s findings show abortion bans haven’t stopped people from seeking care, Alison Norris, #WeCount co-chair and professor at Ohio State University’s College of Public Health, said in a statement.  

“As care shifts across state lines and into telehealth care, what’s emerging is a deeply fragmented system where access depends on where you live, how much money you have, and whether you can overcome barriers to care,” Norris said.