Updated on January 5, 2022: This analysis has been updated to include abortion restrictions signed at the end of 2021. Updated on December 20, 2021: This analysis has been adjusted to reflect the United States Food and Drug Administration's changes to the restrictions on medication abortion. First published on December 16, 2021:| Guttmacher Institute
In 2024, the US sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) landscape remained deeply fragmented. Many states enacted policies to expand access to sexual and reproductive health services, including state constitutional protections for abortion that passed by ballot initiative in seven states. But other states started or continued enforcing draconian abortion bans and other restrictions that limit people’s bodily autonomy and aim to instill fear around seeking abortion care. | Guttmacher Institute
Updated on June 16, 2023, to correct the number of shield laws passed in 2023.| Guttmacher Institute
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The Trump administration and many social conservatives in Congress and across state governments have put federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) front and center in their attempts to pull public funding from other types of safety-net providers—specifically, those that provide abortion-related services. Proposals to significantly expand FQHCs’ responsibility for meeting the need for publicly funded contraceptive care have taken two main forms.| Guttmacher Institute
Abortion is essential health care, and everyone should be able to get abortion care, coverage, information and referrals without interference. The Weldon Amendment and related federal “refusal of care” policies embolden health insurance plans, health care institutions and medical providers to deny abortion services and coverage, without regard to the impact on patients’ rights, health or well-being and often under the rubric of protecting “conscience” or “religious freedom.”| Guttmacher Institute
All young people should have access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health information that is medically accurate, LGBTQ+ inclusive, and culturally and age-appropriate so that they can make informed decisions about their sexual behavior, relationships and reproductive options. Sex is already part of many adolescents’ lives, and they deserve to receive high-quality information to inform their decision-making. | Guttmacher Institute
Abortion is essential health care and should be affordable for everyone, regardless of income, zip code or source of insurance. But the Hyde Amendment prohibits federal funding for abortion, preventing people enrolled in Medicaid and other public programs in most states from using their health insurance to cover abortion care. The Hyde Amendment disproportionately impacts people already facing systemic barriers to care, particularly Black, Indigenous and other people of color. To ensure it is...| Guttmacher Institute
Investments in sexual and reproductive health and rights have far-reaching and measurable benefits. By helping to address people’s reproductive health needs, such investments not only promote health and well-being throughout people’s lives but also contribute to improvements in gender equity, political stability, economic development and environmental sustainability.1| Guttmacher Institute
Drawing on 2017 evidence for 24 high-income countries, Guttmacher researchers found that medication abortion (typically mifepristone and misoprostol together) accounted for at least half of all abortions in the majority of high-income countries. In Finland, Sweden and Norway, medication abortion accounted for about nine out of every 10 abortions. The study also found that the proportion of abortions using medication increased steadily over time in the 11 countries that had trend data. A 2021...| Guttmacher Institute
The Reproductive Health Impact Study (RHIS) is a multiyear comprehensive research initiative that analyzed the effects of federal and state policy changes on US publicly funded family planning care from 2017 to 2024. The Guttmacher Institute worked with research and policy partners in four states—Arizona, Iowa, New Jersey and Wisconsin—to document the impact of these policies on family planning service delivery and the patients who rely on this care.| Guttmacher Institute
Background| Guttmacher Institute
Background| Guttmacher Institute
The Title X national family planning program was established in 1970 with the express intent of addressing inequities in access to contraceptive and related services. Title X has always prioritized serving patients who are low income, uninsured, young or otherwise disadvantaged, helping them advance their right to exercise power over their own reproductive decisions.| Guttmacher Institute
Introduction| Guttmacher Institute
The Family Planning Impact Consortium (FP-Impact) is a multidisciplinary group of researchers and other members of the scientific community convened to generate and disseminate evidence that equips countries with estimates of the value of investing in family planning.| Guttmacher Institute
On April 2, the US Supreme Court will hear a case that is—at its heart—about the autonomy and reproductive freedom of some of the country’s most vulnerable communities. Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic challenges South Carolina’s efforts to prevent people enrolled in Medicaid from accessing health care at Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.| Guttmacher Institute
Investments in sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), including contraception and HIV services and programs, are lifesaving and have far-reaching and measurable benefits. Improving SRHR enables women and girls to have control over their bodies and their lives, promotes their health and well-being, and contributes more broadly to gender equality, strengthened health systems, economic development and resilience to climate change.1 Investing in SRHR is widely considered one of the mos...| Guttmacher Institute
Executive Summary The situation of induced abortion has changed markedly over the past few decades. This report provides updated information on the incidence of abortion worldwide, the laws that regulate abortion and the safety of its provision. It also looks at unintended pregnancy, its relationship to abortion, and the impact that both have on women and couples who increasingly want smaller families and more control over the timing of their births.| Guttmacher Institute
States have enacted 106 abortion restrictions so far in 2021, a year that has been marked by unprecedented threats to U.S. abortion rights and access. Not only is 106 the highest number of restrictions passed since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, but also this year is the first time that Guttmacher’s count of enacted restrictions has hit triple digits.| Guttmacher Institute
Note: All counts refer to laws in effect as of December 30, 2020.| Guttmacher Institute
Updated on May 26, 2022 This analysis has been updated throughout to reflect counts of state legislation as of May 25. Previous updates since first publication are archived below. Notable changes since the last update include: Oklahoma’s governor signed into law a total ban on abortion starting at fertilization with a "bounty hunter" enforcement mechanism that went into effect immediately. This makes Oklahoma the first state to completely ban abortion since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.| Guttmacher Institute
Project 2025 promotes a presidential agenda that rolls back civil and human rights and implements extremist conservative policies across every federal department and agency. Its sweeping far-right policy framework,1 by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, includes numerous attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights. | Guttmacher Institute
Title X, the United States’s publicly funded family planning program, was established in the 1970s with the express goal of reducing inequities in access to contraception and other reproductive health care. Because it helps clinics provide such services to people who have low incomes, are uninsured or come from disadvantaged communities, the Title X program is critical to ensuring reproductive autonomy. | Guttmacher Institute
Originally published in Ms. Magazine. | Guttmacher Institute
When President-Elect Donald Trump takes office again, in January, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) will face unprecedented threats from the federal level. The second Trump administration will not only reenact many hostile policies from the first but also almost certainly expand its assaults on SRHR in the United States and abroad. Guided by the detailed agenda for dismantling civil rights outlined by conservatives in Project 2025, the Trump-Vance administration will work quic...| Guttmacher Institute
The Trump administration has established a clear pattern of attacking sexual and reproductive health and rights, both in the United States and abroad. It is part of a calculated strategy of going after services and systems that benefit critical populations, including women, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and many others.1 Although this strategy is designed to support domestic political goals, its impact is felt acutely by individuals around the world.| Guttmacher Institute
Contraception is basic preventive health care that should be affordable and accessible for everyone. Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) known as the federal contraceptive coverage guarantee, most private health insurance plans in the United States must cover the full range of contraceptive methods, services and counseling without patients’ incurring out-of-pocket costs such as copayments or deductibles. A substantial body of evidence confirms that the contraceptive coverage ...| Guttmacher Institute
The landscape of abortion access in the United States continues to shift rapidly in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion. Since then, many state legislatures have created new abortion restrictions and bans, and many have begun enforcing existing ones. Research has long indicated that abortion bans of all types have the greatest impact on peo...| Guttmacher Institute
As a leading funder of global health programs, the United States has the power to make a tremendous impact on people’s sexual and reproductive health and rights. But restrictions on funding that target abortion care internationally have had broad, detrimental impacts on reproductive health care systems, advocacy and outcomes. Such is the case with the so-called global gag rule, a policy that conditions US global health assistance on nongovernmental organizations’ agreement not to provide ...| Guttmacher Institute
Corrected April 2, 2024. See notes below.| Guttmacher Institute
Updated on May 10, 2024 | Guttmacher Institute
Two years after the US Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion, an increasingly robust body of evidence is emerging that illustrates the myriad harms caused and exacerbated by the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Several dozen peer-reviewed studies and other rigorous research conducted since June 2022 illustrate key facets of the impact of Dobbs, including data on changes in clinic numbers, abortion incidence and travel for abortion care. This empiri...| Guttmacher Institute
New Guttmacher Institute research from the Monthly Abortion Provision Study shows that there were approximately 642,700 medication abortions in the United States in 2023, accounting for 63% of all abortions in the formal health care system. This is an increase from 2020, when medication abortions accounted for 53% of all abortions. | Guttmacher Institute
All people deserve access to quality health care—including abortion services—in or near their communities. However, fewer and fewer Americans are able to get abortion care in their own state. According to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study, the proportion of patients traveling to other states to obtain abortion care has doubled in recent years, reaching nearly one in five in the first half of 2023, compared with one in 10 in 2020.* This surg...| Guttmacher Institute
Updated on March 2, 2022: This analysis has been updated to correct the date when the FDA allowed abortion pills to be mailed to patients for the duration of the pandemic. First published on February 24, 2022:| Guttmacher Institute
Use of medication abortion in the formal US health care system has risen substantially from 53% of all abortions in 2020 to 63% in 2023. In the first full calendar year following the US Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, approximately 642,700 medication abortions took place within the health care system, according to new data from the Guttmacher Institute’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study. | Guttmacher Institute
The US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade, represents a dramatic shift in abortion provision and access in the United States.| Guttmacher Institute
In 2023, the first full year since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, state legislatures took key action on sexual and reproductive health. While many states increased access and piloted new policy solutions to expand and protect abortion and other sexual and reproductive health care, others sought to further curtail access.| Guttmacher Institute
Anti-abortion policymakers in the United States have continually crafted legal restrictions to ensure that abortion care is burdensome or impossible to obtain. This strategy has led to more than 1,300 abortion restrictions having been enacted since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, and is layered on top of failures of the health care and economic systems to provide Black, Indigenous and Latino* communities and communities living with low incomes access to high-quality, affordable health care, ...| Guttmacher Institute
Updated on April 19, 2022: This analysis has been updated to reflect Wyoming’s enactment of a "trigger" ban in March 2022 that moved the state from the category of likely to ban abortion to certain to ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Updated information was added on 2022 Florida legislation and mention of North Carolina’s pre-Roe abortion ban. First published on October 28, 2021:| Guttmacher Institute
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This much is true: In the United States, the abortion rate for black women is almost five times that for white women. Antiabortion activists, including some African-American pastors, have been waging a campaign around this fact, falsely asserting that the disparity is the result of aggressive marketing by abortion providers to minority communities.| Guttmacher Institute
By mid-June, sixteen state legislatures (AZ, CA, DE, FL, MA, MI, NC, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, VT, and WI), five territory legislatures (AS, GU, MP, PR, and VI) and the District of Columbia had convened their regular sessions. Thirty-four states have adjourned their regular sessions (AL, AK, AR, CO, CT, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NM, ND, OK, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV and WY). (As of June 15, 2025)| Guttmacher Institute
Unintended pregnancy and abortion are experiences shared by people around the world. These reproductive health outcomes occur irrespective of country income level, region or the legal status of abortion.| Guttmacher Institute
Comprehensive sex education and HIV education are critical for young people to be able to understand their bodies and make informed decisions about their health and relationships. To be considered comprehensive, education on sex and HIV should be medically accurate, age-appropriate, inclusive and culturally responsive. However, states take widely divergent approaches to providing sex and HIV education. | Guttmacher Institute
The Guttmacher Institute recently published new data on abortion in the United States. As we work to update our fact sheets with the latest data, please be aware that some of the information below is out of date. In the meantime, please refer to the following resources for the most current facts on abortion in the United States:| Guttmacher Institute
