Florida remained America’s abortion hotspot in the first months after Roe v Wade was overturned, new CDC data shows.
The Sunshine State recorded the most abortions in the nation in 2022, with 82,581, according to the first annual report on abortions nationwide since abortion access was axed federally in June of that year.
This was nearly 50 percent higher than the number in deep-blue Illinois, which registered 56,457 abortions, and New York City, which recorded 46,373 — and above that in similar red states like Texas, which recorded 17,514 in the same year.
When broken down by rate, which accounts for population size, New Mexico was the top state in the nation followed by Illinois and Kansas. Florida came fourth.
The report showed that the total number of abortions fell two percent in 2022 compared to the previous year, and was down five percent on nearly a decade ago.
More than 92.8 percent of abortions were carried out before week-13 of pregnancy, and 78.6 percent were carried out before week-9. Only 1.1 percent of abortions were recorded after 21 weeks gestation, totalling 4,896.
Every age group saw a decline within the year, except for women aged 30 to 34 years old — among whom abortions rose slightly.
Doctors say a fetus is only viable outside the womb after around 24 weeks.
The above map shows the abortion rate by state. It reveals that New Mexico has the highest rate. By total number of abortions, Florida is the nation’s hotspot
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The CDC contacted all 50 states in the US and requested data on the number of abortions recorded in their area for the year 2022.
Several states did not provide data for the report including California, the nation’s most populous state, Maryland and New Jersey.
Florida has been America’s abortion hotspot since 2020 when it overtook New York state, and allowed abortions up to the 26th week of pregnancy until June 2022, when Roe v Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court.
The following month the state passed a ban on abortions past week-15 of pregnancy, and in May 2024 a six-week abortion ban was brought into effect.
In 2022 and 2023, the 15-week limit made the state a key access point for abortions in the South — where many other states adopted more restrictive bans. Its neighbor Alabama, for example, has banned abortions at all stages of pregnancy.
Attempts to shift Florida’s ban to 24 weeks were defeated at the ballot box this month after only 57 percent of Floridians voted in favor — below the 60 percent threshold needed to pass the measure.
Donald Trump has previously described Florida’s abortion ban, which kicks in before many women realize they are pregnant, as a ‘terrible mistake’.
Comparing the states by abortion rate, which takes into account differences in population size, New Mexico has the highest abortion rate in the country at 28.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years old.
In second place was Illinois, at 22.8 per 1,000, and Kansas was in third place, at 21.6 per 1,000. By rate, Florida was ranked fourth at 20.5 per 1,000.
The above graph shows the total number of abortions over time. They dropped two percent between 2021 and 2022
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At the other end of the scale, Missouri had the lowest abortion rate of any state at 0.1 per 1,000 — or 88 abortions — in 2022.
South Dakota had the second lowest, at 0.8 per 1,000, and West Virginia, Oklahoma and Idaho had the third lowest at 2.7 per 1,000.
States with the highest abortion rates were often also administering abortions to women from outside the state, as well as residents.
In New Mexico, 62 percent of abortions were for women who came from out of state, and in Illinois about 30 percent of abortions were done for this group.
New Mexico borders Texas and Oklahoma, which have some of the strictest limits on abortion in the country, not allowing abortion after six weeks including in instances of rape or incest.
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Missouri was the first state to make virtually all abortions illegal in the US after banning all except for those that were medically necessary in June 2022.
This month, however, the ban was overturned at the ballot box by 52 to 48 percent, with the state now shifting to permitting abortions up to 24 weeks, when a fetus is viable outside the womb.
South Dakota passed a similarly restrictive abortion ban in June 2022, and a measure to overturn it was defeated this month after only 39 percent of residents voted in favor of it being expanded.
Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a data scientist at the Guttmacher Institute, told the Guardian: ‘[This data] really speaks to a [split] of access.
‘On the one hand, you have many states where abortion has gotten incredibly difficult to access — states with total bans, states with six-week bans.
‘And then, on the other hand… we estimate that in 2023 around 168,000 [women] traveled across state lines to access abortion care, which is more than double the number of people who traveled in 2019 or 2020.’
He added: ‘It speaks to the way that [women] are going to really great lengths — often with a lot of support from a lot of other organizations — in order to be able to access abortion care when they need it.’
CDC data also showed that, in 2022, the highest percentage of abortions were performed as an early medical abortion at before 9 weeks — at more than 53.3 percent.
Surgical abortion before 13 weeks was the second most common method, at 35.5 percent, while 6.9 percent of abortions were carried out surgicall post the 13-week mark.
Donald Trump has appointed Dr Dave Weldon to lead the CDC, who co-authored the ‘Weldon Amendment’ which barred the Department of Health and Human Services from ‘discriminating’ against health insurance plans that did not cover abortions.
