Globally, about 3 in 10 pregnancies (29%) end in induced abortion each year, totaling roughly 73 million abortions worldwide. In the United States, the numbers have been rising in recent years, with approximately 1.13 million abortions provided in 2025.
Global Numbers at a Glance
The World Health Organization estimates that 73 million induced abortions occur each year across the globe. That 29% figure covers all pregnancies, including those that were planned. When looking only at unintended pregnancies, the share is much higher: 6 out of 10 unintended pregnancies end in abortion.
These numbers vary enormously by region. Countries with broad access to contraception tend to have lower abortion rates, but restricting abortion legally doesn’t reliably reduce the total number. It primarily shifts procedures from formal healthcare settings to informal ones.
How Many Abortions Happen in the US
Two major sources track US abortion data, and they report different totals because they count differently. The CDC collects voluntary reports from state health departments and tallied 613,383 abortions for 2022, the most recent year in its surveillance data. However, not all states report to the CDC (California, for instance, has historically not participated), so this is an undercount.
The Guttmacher Institute surveys abortion providers directly and captures a broader picture. Its monthly tracking study counted approximately 1,058,650 abortions in 2023, 1,123,920 in 2024, and 1,126,470 in 2025. That puts the current US figure at just over 1.1 million per year, or roughly 94,000 per month.
To put that in context, approximately 3.6 million babies are born in the US each year. Using the Guttmacher numbers, roughly 1 in 5 known pregnancies (excluding miscarriages) ends in abortion.
When Most Abortions Take Place
The vast majority of abortions happen early in pregnancy. CDC surveillance data from 2021 shows that 80.8% occurred at 9 weeks of gestation or earlier. Another 12.7% took place between 10 and 13 weeks. Combined, 93.5% of all abortions happened within the first trimester.
Later abortions are uncommon. About 5.7% occurred between 14 and 20 weeks, and just 0.9% at 21 weeks or beyond. Those later procedures are more likely to involve medical complications, fetal diagnoses discovered on mid-pregnancy scans, or barriers that delayed access to earlier care.
Medication vs. Procedural Abortion
The way people obtain abortions has shifted dramatically in a short period. In 2020, medication abortion (using pills rather than a clinical procedure) accounted for 53% of all US abortions. By 2023, that figure had risen to 63%, with approximately 642,700 medication abortions that year.
Medication abortion is typically available through the first 10 to 12 weeks of pregnancy and involves two drugs taken in sequence, usually one to two days apart. The shift toward this method accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when telehealth prescribing became more common, and continued after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision as some patients in restrictive states sought pills by mail.
What Changed After the Dobbs Decision
When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, many expected the national abortion total to drop. Instead, the opposite happened. Total abortions rose from roughly 1.06 million in 2023 to 1.12 million in 2024 and stayed at that level in 2025, a 6.1% increase between 2023 and 2024 alone.
Several factors explain this. States that maintained or expanded abortion access saw large increases in patients traveling from states with bans. Telehealth prescribing of abortion pills expanded. And some providers in access-friendly states scaled up capacity specifically to absorb out-of-state demand. The net effect was a geographic redistribution of where abortions occurred rather than a reduction in how many took place.
Why People Choose Abortion
Surveys of abortion patients consistently point to practical and financial pressures rather than a single dominant reason. In the most detailed US study on this question, 74% of respondents said having a child would interfere with their education, work, or ability to care for existing dependents. Nearly the same share, 73%, said they could not afford a baby at that time. About 48% cited relationship problems or not wanting to be a single parent.
Close to 4 in 10 women said they had already completed their childbearing, and a similar proportion said they were simply not ready for a child. Health concerns, either for the pregnant person or for the fetus, were cited by 12% to 13% of respondents but were the primary reason for only about 7%. Fewer than 1% said pressure from a parent or partner was their most important reason.
Financial strain threads through nearly every category. Among those who said they couldn’t afford a child, 42% specifically linked that to being unmarried, and 34% said they were currently students or planning to study. When asked to identify a single most important reason, the top answers in both 1987 and 2004 were the same: not being ready for a child, and not being able to afford one.