How Many Daily Abortions in the U.S.?

We use 3,000 as our estimate for the number of abortions that occur daily in the United States of America.

Here’s why:

There are two basic sources for abortion statistics: the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute.

The Centers for Disease Control numbers are incomplete as they rely on voluntary state reporting and not every state releases their abortion totals. States vary greatly in the information collected and published, with some states collecting and publishing numerous tables and others collecting scant or no information at all. The questions states ask providers and patients vary widely as there is no federally regulated standard. Abortion reporting is weakest in some states that have the highest abortion rates. The most recent data available from the CDC is from their 2013 report. Three states are not included: New Hampshire, Maryland and California.

The number of abortions reported by the CDC in the U.S. for 2013 is 664,435. This equates to 1,820 abortions each day. We know the CDC numbers are light, since they do not even include all states, but what it does give us is an irrefutable bottom basement number for how many abortions occur in the U.S. each year. When you include projections from the states not included, there should be inarguable agreement, that at the very least, there are more than 2,000 daily abortions committed in the U.S. The CDC also does not include number of pre-born children killed by abortifacients.

The Guttmacher Institute, originally called the Center for Family Planning Research Development, was founded in 1968 as an arm of Planned Parenthood the largest abortion provider in the United States. Its early development was nurtured by Alan F. Guttmacher, Planned Parenthood President (1962-1974) and former Vice President of the American Eugenics Society. Guttmacher died in 1974 and the Center was renamed in his memory. The Guttmacher Institute incorporated as an entirely independent nonprofit policy research institute with its own Board in 1977, but remained an affiliate of Planned Parenthood. It has continued to receive financial support from Planned Parenthood, with the last known contribution made in 2013. The most recent data available from the Guttmacher Institute is from 2014. It should also be noted that the Guttmacher Institute is heavily invested in promoting contraception and one of the ways they seek to do so is by falsely claiming that an increase in contraception leads to a decrease in abortion.

The number of abortions reported by the Guttmacher Institute in the U.S. for 2014 is 926,200. This equates to 2,538 abortions each day. These numbers do not include pre-born humans killed by abortifacients such as IUDs, emergency contraceptives (ex. Plan B, Ella), and some birth control pills (ex. Yaz, Yasmin). Including an accurate estimated number of pre-born children killed by abortifacients to the overall total of daily abortions in the U.S. would at least double the numbers.

In order to land on a reasonable number that takes all of these facts into account and can be universally accepted, we use the general figure of 3,000 daily abortions in the U.S.

Charlotte Lozier Institute, Abortion Reporting: Toward a Better National Standard, 2016

Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2013

Guttmacher Institute, Induced Abortion in the United States, January 2017