The Charlotte Lozier Institute, a research and education arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, just released new findings that show most abortions in Florida and seven other states were used as a form of birth control when women chose to have an abortion.
Much of the data was compiled in 2021 because many states limited abortion following the Supreme Court Dobbs decision in 2022.
The study noticed that Florida and the other seven states, AZ, LA, MN, NE, OK, SD, UT, accounted for approximately 123,000 abortions in 2021, which would have been around 13% of the U.S. total in 2020. Some of these states allow women to report multiple reasons for an abortion or to write a particular reason, while others ask women to select the top reason or choose from a predetermined list.
To determine an estimate of the percentage of abortions performed for a given reason, the Lozier Institute found common exceptions to abortion limits are estimated to account for less than 5% of all abortions. Rape and incest: 0.4%. Risk to the woman’s life or a major bodily function: 0.3%. Other physical health concerns: 2.2%. Abnormality in the unborn baby: 1.2%. But under elective and unspecified reasons, that number was at 95.9%.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the total number of abortions in 2020 were estimated to be 50% higher than the official U.S. total from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which monitors U.S. abortion trends.
Lozier Institute says the CDC does not request information on reasons for abortion from the states, and so this data is not included in the national reports.
Lozier also notes that after the Dobbs decision, there has been a shift in where and why abortions are performed and the complications that are associated with them, the CDC should strengthen reporting requirements and request additional data from the states.
