Teen abortion rates U.S. by age 2021

In 2021, the rate of abortion among adolescent women aged 19 years in the United States was around 12 per 1,000 population. Abortion in the United States remains a controversial and divisive subject. In 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the historic court ruling that gave women the right to abortion. Now states are allowed to completely ban the procedure if they so choose. However, despite the ruling and subsequent abortion bans in many states, polls show the majority of U.S. adults still favor the legalization of abortion.

How many abortions are there in the U.S. per year?

In 2021, there were around 626,000 legal abortions in the United States. This was one of the lowest numbers recorded since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973. The rate of abortions per 100 live births in 2021 was 20.4, a significant decrease from a rate of 30.6 reported in 1997. The states with the highest rates of abortion in 2020 were Illinois, Florida, and Georgia, while Missouri and Wyoming had the lowest rates.

Abortion among adolescents

The rate of abortion among adolescent women in the United States aged 15 to 19 years has also decreased over the past decade. In 2012, there were around 9.2 abortions among adolescent women per 1,000 population. By the year 2021, this figure had dropped to 5.4 per 1,000 population. The majority of abortions among adolescents occur in week nine or less of gestation. The birth control pill is one of the safest and most effective ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but only around 23 percent of female high school students who were sexually active were using the pill in 2021.