Data Considerations

Reporting abortion data to the CDC is voluntary, and not all states submit the same information. Four states with few (if any) abortion restrictions submit no information at all (California, New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey). We know that the CDC data undoubtedly is missing thousands of abortions in these jurisdictions. And in pro-abortion states like New York, a decrease in the number of reported abortions thanks to poor data collection can give the impression that the actual incidence of abortion is decreasing when sadly, that’s not the case.

With those caveats in mind, the CDC data is still helpful to illustrate trends in the abortion policy landscape.

States such as New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, North Carolina, and Illinois, neighbor pro-life states that have worked to protect life following Roe’s reversal in 2022. In these states, abortion numbers haven’t gone down. They’ve risen, in some cases dramatically so. This tells us that while protective laws in pro-life states are saving lives, pro-abortion neighbor states are cancelling out at least some of the hard-fought protections for women, girls, and babies in pro-life states.

The CDC data only goes through 2022, meaning we’re only seeing the effect of the first six months of post-Roe policies. Additional data for 2023 and beyond will, in time, provide additional context for trends in states that have strengthened (or weakened) pro-life laws in more recent years.