The Guttmacher Institute released the latest round of data from its Monthly Abortion Provision Study, an initiative launched in 2023 to produce monthly estimates of clinician-provided abortions in US states without total abortion bans. In addition to state and national abortion estimates from January 2023 through November 2024, for the first time the data also include state-level estimates of the proportion of abortions provided via medication in 2023 in states without total abortion bans and the proportion of all abortions that were provided by online-only clinics in 2023 in states without total bans or bans on telemedicine provision. In an accompanying policy analysis, Guttmacher experts put these findings in the larger political context, outlining the current and future threats to medication abortion in the United States.
The new data confirm that medication abortion accounts for the majority of abortions provided in nearly all US states without total abortion bans, ranging from 95% in Wyoming and 84% in Montana to 44% in Washington, DC and 46% in Ohio. These estimates expand on Guttmacher’s previous finding that 63% of all clinician-provided abortions in 2023 in the United States (excluding states with total abortion bans) were medication abortions.
“What is striking about these findings is that the variation in proportion of medication abortion is not based on any single state characteristic,” says Isabel DoCampo, Guttmacher Institute senior research associate. “For instance, Wyoming, a large and rural state with low population density and restrictive abortion policies, had a very high proportion of medication abortion, but so did Delaware, which is a small and densely populated state with relatively protective abortion laws. These findings make it clear that regardless of geography, people across the country rely on abortion pills to access essential reproductive health care.”
“Anti-abortion policymakers recognize the important role that medication abortion plays, so it is not surprising that they are using every lever of government to target its access and availability,” says Amy Friedrich-Karnik, Guttmacher Institute director of federal policy. “Their attacks are grounded in fearmongering and disinformation, not evidence, and threaten access to medication abortion not just where abortion is currently restricted, but where it is broadly legal as well. It is critical that courts and regulatory agencies follow the science and safeguard mifepristone from political meddling.”
Data is available on Guttmacher’s US Abortion Provision Dashboard and the accompanying policy analysis. This interactive resource provides more detailed insights into the Monthly Abortion Provision Study data and makes critical evidence more accessible to advocates, researchers, journalists, policymakers and anyone aiming to use rigorous research to improve access to abortion in the United States.
About the Study
The Monthly Abortion Provision Study estimates the number of clinician-provided abortions that take place each month in each US state without a total ban. It collects data on procedural and medication abortions provided at brick-and-mortar health facilities (such as clinics or doctor’s offices), as well as medication abortions provided via telehealth and virtual providers in the United States. Abortions are counted as having been provided in the state in which a patient had a procedure or where pills were dispensed.
Estimates are generated by a statistical model that combines data collected from monthly samples of providers with historical data on the caseload of every provider in the United States; as more data are collected each month, estimates for past months become more precise. In addition to median estimates for each month, we provide a range (uncertainty interval) that describes the precision of the estimates: A bigger range means that the estimate is more uncertain for a specific state and month, while a smaller range indicates that the estimate is more precise.
About the Guttmacher Institute
The Guttmacher Institute is a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide. The Institute has a long history of tracking abortion incidence in the United States and globally. Every three years since 1974, the Guttmacher Institute has conducted the Abortion Provider Census of all known facilities providing abortion in the United States to collect information about service provision, including total number of abortions.