Three years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade with its June 2022 decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, the ruling returning the issue of abortion to the states.
Since then, states have differed on the issue of abortion. Some have implemented pro-life laws while others have become abortion hubs. Additional changes in America’s abortion atmosphere have also occurred, including the increase in use of chemical abortion. The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) released a report on the status of abortion in America since Dobbs, highlighting not only the number of abortions performed but also the numerous changes related to abortion that have transpired.
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Abortion in the U.S. in the Dobbs era
CLI’s paper is titled, “How Many Abortions Are Occurring in America Post Dobbs?” It “provides, for the first time, a holistic overview of abortion provision in post-Dobbs America,” according to study author Mia Steupert.
She discovered through her research that 1,121,450 abortions were performed between July 2023 and June 2024 in the “formal U.S. health care system,” meaning at abortion facilities, hospitals, clinics, and physicians’ offices. There is also online ordering and receiving of abortion drugs through the mail. Steupert concurs with pro-life advocates who say there is no true way to know the data in the latter scenario, but she believes research shows “thousands upon thousands” of women use that option. All estimates say that well over half of all abortions in the U.S. are chemical abortions.
There is no federal mandatory reporting on abortion in the United States and abortion centers provide data to “only pro-abortion organizations,” Steupert writes in the report. Therefore, she and other researchers can “only observe and analyze data from third parties….”
For the study, Steupert used data from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research and advocacy group, and the Society of Family Planning’s (SFP) #WeCount project. And she noted, “… the data, statistically speaking, is the best researchers have.”
From those sources, Steupert discovered several important findings, including:
- Regulatory and legal changes that impact abortion provision;
- Different modes of providing abortion;
- The total number of abortions and the total by year that have occurred in America since Dobbs.
Regulatory and legal changes
Steupert highlighted three regulatory and legal changes in the report that have impacted abortion provision in the United States. Those are telehealth, the Dobbs decision, and shield laws.
- Telehealth abortions
These began to increase in 2020 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stopped enforcing the in-person dispensing requirement for the first abortion drug, mifepristone, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The change was made official in December of the following year. In January 2023, the FDA also removed the in-person dispensing requirement from the “regulatory rulebook for mifepristone,” Steupert wrote. This allowed physical abortion facilities to send the drug by mail, which, in turn, led “to the creation and proliferation of virtual centers that send abortion drugs around the country.” Today, more than two-thirds of abortions are done using the two-drug regime (with some estimates as high as 80 percent). Additionally, a growing percentage of chemical abortions are done at home without the benefit of a physician assessing a pregnant woman beforehand. Some states passed laws prohibiting the mailing of abortion drugs, however, those are difficult to enforce.
- The Dobbs decision
The 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling caused the legality of abortion to differ dramatically across the country, Steupert contends. Now that states control the regulation of abortion, a dozen “prohibit abortion except in limited cases,” she states. Other states, like California, New York, Colorado, and Illinois, allow abortion through all trimesters. This difference shone even brighter during the 2024 election – several states brought forth initiatives to enshrine abortion as a right in their constitution and seven of those measures passed.
- Shield laws
A shield law protects “abortionists from various forms of legal and professional liability,” according to Steupert. This applies whether that person provides abortion drugs to or performs surgical abortions upon women from states that ban or restrict abortion. That can include immunity from criminal, civil, and malpractice. More than 20 states and D.C. have some type of shield law, Steupert noted.
Different modes of delivering abortion
Even though telehealth abortions have increased, Steupert reports that most U.S. abortions still take place at brick-and-mortar facilities. Her research found that there are 777 abortion centers in the U.S., with 454 offering both chemical and surgical abortions, 319 only offering chemical abortions, and four providing only surgical abortions. She included mobile units in her numbers of brick-and-mortar abortion facilities.
As mentioned, the second way for women to obtain an abortion is by receiving abortion drugs by mail. Steupert highlighted four primary types of mail-order abortion providers in the report: online-only/telehealth, hybrid (brick-and-mortar and telehealth), online e-commerce websites, and community network support groups. Most involve the use of the internet, and while some operate in the U.S., others are based in different countries. Steupert provides great detail about each type in her report.
She noted that the following countries have abortion drug manufacturers: India (37), China (3), Vietnam (3), America (2), and Canada, France, Germany, Nepal, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland each have one.
Number of abortions in America since Dobbs
To obtain the number and types of abortions in America since Dobbs, Steupert used data from the SFP’s #WeCount project. Of the 1,121450 total, 912,970 were performed at brick-and-mortar locations, 189,250 were through online sites, and 20,030 were from hybrid facilities. Of the online only numbers (189,250), more than half (97,810) were provided under shield laws.
In accessing the number of abortions since Dobbs from year-to-year, Steupert looked at both #WeCount and Guttmacher. She discovered discrepancies in the numbers, primarily due to missing data, particularly within time frames from #WeCount.
Steupert also found lower numbers reported in the Guttmacher data. For example, in 2023, #WeCount recorded 1,056,150 abortions for the year; Guttmacher recorded 1,032,140, and from January to June 2024, #WeCount posted 587,440 abortions performed whereas Guttmacher estimated the number of abortions for that same time period at 543,780. Additionally, from 2023 to June 2024, #WeCount recorded 1,643,590 abortions compared to Guttmacher’s 1,575,920.
“Guttmacher’s data does not include shield law abortions,” Steupert noted in the paper.
She also states that the methodology used by the two organizations differs, with
Guttmacher’s estimates are obtained through survey samples while the #WeCount’s data is acquired by surveying all abortion centers and virtual organizations.
“Not all centers and organizations answered, however, and the exact response rates are not described in either study’s description of its methodology,” she wrote.
Additionally, Guttmacher “uploaded new data and slightly revised older monthly estimates” after the CLI paper was researched and written but before it was published, she noted.
“[Therefore], the calculations in this paper don’t quite match the most current data on Guttmacher’s project dashboard or most updated metadata Excel sheets but rather reflect previously published estimates,” Steupert said.
Additionally, the CLI paper was updated on June 27, 2025, to account for changes made to #WeCount’s data limitations section in its most recently released report, CLI said.
Resident vs. non-resident
Because many states placed restrictions on abortion, women seeking abortions in such locations travel out-of-state. Steupert researched these numbers as well and concluded that, though there has been an increase in the number of abortions performed on women from states that restrict abortion, that increase isn’t the true cause for the increase in abortion numbers in the U.S. post-Dobbs as many media outlets claim.
“While the increase in nonresident abortions in 33 of the 38 states is not inconsequential, the increases in resident abortions were statistically more significant to the overall increase in abortions from 2020 to 2023 and the overall total number of abortions in 2023,” she said. “In 21 of the 34 states where abortions increased, the increase in resident abortions was more responsible for the increase in overall abortions than the overall increase in nonresident abortions.”
However, she acknowledged the number of women traveling to another state to obtain abortions increased by 126 percent between 2020 and 2023.
Study conclusions
Abortion continues to happen post-Roe v. Wade. Even in states where the procedure is restricted, women can, and do, access abortion, whether they travel out-of-state or procure abortion drugs through the mail.
With no federal mandate on abortion reporting and not all clinics being surveyed or reported, “abortion data is complex and has many limitations that are a result of the ongoing de-regulation of abortion that makes it difficult to track,” Steupert said.
“The current number of abortions occurring in America cannot be explained by one phenomenon but rather by detailed explanations of the intricacies of how and where women are obtaining abortions,” she said.
The total number of abortions in America in the Dobbs era is derived from a host of factors:
- An increasing number of women from pro-life states are traveling out of state to obtain abortions and obtaining abortion drugs under shield laws. However, a majority of abortions are still being performed on women in their states of residence where abortion is still legal at some or any point in a woman’s pregnancy.
- An increasing number of abortions are being performed via telehealth, but a majority of abortions are still being performed at brick-and-mortar abortion centers.
- Pro-life state laws do not prevent all abortions from occurring, even within state lines. However, they have been responsible for the elimination of abortions performed at brick-and-mortar centers in certain states.
“Ultimately, one abortion performed anywhere is one too many and a tragedy,” Steupert concluded. “The fact that well over one million are occurring a year is a national travesty.”
Tweet This: Ultimately, one abortion performed anywhere is one too many and a tragedy. Well over one million occurring a year is a national travesty.
