Study reconfirms that nearly all abortions in the US are still for ‘elective’ reasons

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 debunked many of the most prominently featured narratives 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.”

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% of abortions are done due to rape, and 0.3% are done due to a risk to the woman’s life or major bodily function:

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 Shows

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.
• 8 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.
• 9 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% of abortions committed in Alaska in 2022 were for “congenital anomalies” and none were reported in 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.

Florida (2023) – Over 71% of total reported abortions in Florida (84,052) were reported as “elective” in 2023. This is a slight decrease from the 74% 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 .3% were for “Life Endangering Physical Condition (251),” and less than 1% were for either “incest (11)” or “rape (107)” or “fetal anomaly (141)” combined.

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%) were for “mental health of mother,” 103 (2.25%) for “physical health of mother,” less than 1% for “risk of fetal deformity (10)” and “rape or incest (21).”

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

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

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

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

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

A previous Live Action News report found that less than 1% of total reported abortions in Minnesota (10,136) in 2021 were committed for rape (44) or incest (11), while 54% 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% of women claimed “contraceptive failure” led to their abortions, while over 12% admitted that a failure to use contraception was their reason for abortion. In addition, 42% of women listed “socio-economic” reasons. Nearly 23% “declined to answer” or give a reason.

Less than 1% of abortions were committed due to “maternal life endangered,” “emergency situation,” or “fetal anomaly.” These reasons combined totaled less than 2% of these reasons given. Sexual assault (.63%) and incest (.07%) were also less than 1% of abortions.

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

New Jersey (year unknown) – According to Guttmacher, NJ 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.

South Dakota (2022) – The data showed that between 2018-2022, rape and incest accounted for between <1% up to as high as 3% of abortions in the state. Physical harm to the mother was the reason given by between 2% or as high as 3.6% 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% to as high as 70.4%).
• Mother could not afford the child (ranging between 46.4% to as high as 51.8%).
• Emotional health was unstable (ranging from 17% to as high as 23.4%).

The state reported zero abortions in 2023.

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

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.

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.”

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