For decades, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has partnered with states to collect aggregate statistics on abortions in the United States. The CDC does not require states to submit abortion data, but most do so through state laws requiring abortion providers, hospitals and other medical facilities to submit regular reports.
The information collected in these reports varies by state but typically includes the names of the medical facility and the clinician providing abortion care, the patient’s demographic characteristics (e.g., age, race, ethnicity, marital status and number of previous live births), the patient’s residence details (e.g., state or locality), the gestational duration of the pregnancy and the type of abortion provided.
Given the overturning of Roe v. Wade, new attention is being paid to state abortion reporting requirements, based in part on concerns that they might facilitate surveillance and criminalization of abortion patients and providers. Even states that have banned abortion since the Dobbs decision continue to enforce mandated reporting for abortions provided under any existing exceptions to those bans.