Report: 2 of every 3 abortion facilities in US shuttered since 1990

(The Daily Signal) – More than two out of every three abortion facilities in the United States have closed their doors since 1990 – but abortion still represents “a dark, bloody, hopeless stain on humanity,” according to a new report released Tuesday.

A total of 667 abortion facilities currently do business in America, according to Operation Rescue’s 2024 annual survey of abortion facilities, three fewer than last year. That represents a sharp decrease from 706 abortion facilities in 2020 and a whopping 69% lower than the 2,176 abortion facilities operating in 1990.

The report from Operation Rescue tracks the ebbs and flows of the U.S. abortion industry.

“There is no doubt that abortion facilities are struggling to survive in this post-Roe environment,” Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said. “As we conduct our extensive investigations, we continue to see evidence that abortion clinics are facing challenges hiring and keeping abortionists.”

As of the publication date, 29 abortion facilities had closed down or stopped committing abortions this year, and another 20 ceased seeing abortion-minded women in person, often choosing to distribute abortion pills.

At the same time, 46 facilities opened or resumed carrying out abortions. Overall, the number of in-person abortion facilities decreased from 670 to 667: a total of 377 surgical abortion facilities and 290 that carry out only chemical abortions.

The dramatic number of abortion facility closures over the past three decades tracks with a decrease in the official number of abortions committed in the United States. Officially, the number of abortions peaked in 1990 with 1,429,247 (according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), or in 1985, with 1,578,800 (according to the Guttmacher Institute).

“After nationwide legalization of abortion in 1973, the total number, rate (number of abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years), and ratio (number of abortions per 1,000 live births) of reported abortions increased rapidly, reaching the highest levels in the 1980s, before decreasing at a slow yet steady pace,” the CDC noted in its most recent abortion surveillance.

“During 2006-2008, a break occurred in the previously sustained pattern of decrease[,] although this break was followed in subsequent years by even greater decreases,” the CDC said.

Small increases in the number of abortions took place in 2018 and 2019.

The abortion industry carried out 613,383 recorded abortions in the 48 states and cities that reported those numbers to the CDC during 2022, a decrease of 12,595 from the previous year.

More Pro-Life Laws, Fewer Abortions

The plunging number of U.S. abortions tracks with the progress pro-life advocates have made in protecting unborn children’s lives in the law.

An activist Supreme Court opinion in 1973’s Roe v. Wade decision created a so-called “right” to abortion which—together with the companion case Doe v. Bolton—made it virtually impossible to protect children from abortion at any stage of pregnancy.

The high court’s 1992 case Casey v. Planned Parenthood affirmed that states may begin to protect children from abortion, as long as the laws don’t present an “undue burden” to that “right.” And the Supreme Court’s landmark June 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson described the “undue burden” test as “full of ambiguities” and “difficult to apply” while returning democratic control over abortion to the people.

Pro-life laws quickly covered young children nationwide in a blanket of protection, before the abortion industry began a costly political campaign to fight for its market share. Since then, 12 states have created a “right” to abortion in their state constitutions.

Seven states passed pro-abortion referenda in 2024: Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and New York. But pro-life voters won in three states: Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

In all, 14 states remain abortion-free in 2024: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

On the other hand, eight states and the nation’s capital legally allow abortionists to commit abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy: Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.).

Additionally, 22 states have chosen to shield the abortion industry from the legal consequences of harming mothers and killing babies in other states: 17 states passed laws and five implemented the measures through executive order.

“Abortionists continue to exist as a privileged class of ‘physicians’ who cannot be touched,” Operation Rescue’s Newman said. “Their barbaric work of child-killing is too sacred to ever be lessened by disciplinary actions; meanwhile, preborn children and their mothers pay the cost. States that have enacted these shield laws are only ensuring more women in more states will be exploited, injured, and possibly even killed by greedy pill peddlers who are now considered above the law.”

The distribution of abortion clinics nationwide tends to reflect the legal landscape.

“California, by far, has the highest concentration of abortion clinics, followed by New York, Florida, Washington, Illinois, Michigan, Colorado, and Virginia,” the report says.

The full document, which dubs itself “America’s most comprehensive annual report on the abortion industry,” details the status of the abortion industry in all 50 states.

Fewer Abortions, Less Sex

Explanations for the falling number of abortions vary. Young people today report having less sex than their parents. Researchers have documented “decreases in all modes of partnered sex” between 2009 and 2018. Additional studies trace the decline to at least 1989.

On the other hand, both sexes report getting married later in life than ever before. The national median age at first marriage now is 28 for women and 30 for men, up four years for each sex since 1990.

“Since 1990, the midlife first marriage rate has increased by 75% for women and 45% for men,” notes one study.

Unmarried women accounted for 87.7% of all abortions last year, according to the CDC.

Abortion Costs Up, Wait Times Down

The cost of a first-trimester abortion decreased in 2024 from $637 to $605, likely due to an increased reliance on abortion pills. The price of surgical abortions rose from $661 to $682.

Yet the cost of chemical abortions, carried out with the abortion pill cocktail of mifepristone and misoprostol, also rose during the same period.

The report documents that 64% of all abortion facilities illegally distribute abortion pills after the legal limit of 10 weeks, some as late as early in the second trimester. It doesn’t count the number of online-only, mail-order pill businesses.

Average wait times for an abortion fell from eight days in 2023 to an average 5.5 days in 2024, “a 45% decrease,” states the Operation Rescue report. “The lowest wait time recorded before 2024 was 6.6 days in 2018.”

Abortion Industry Becomes Transgender Industry

The report also documents the abortion industry’s increasing trend of stepping deeply into the transgender industry.

“A significant number of independent abortion clinics are offering gender-subversion drugs, and most Planned Parenthood affiliates are capitalizing on this lucrative, population-reducing initiative,” notes Operation Rescue.

“An abortionist might spend an hour killing several innocent babies then spend another hour forever sterilizing vulnerable young people,” Operation Rescue’s Newman said. “These facilities are a dark, bloody, hopeless stain on humanity.”