Monthly abortion numbers grew dramatically in the first six months of 2024, according to a report released Tuesday by the pro-abortion Society of Family Planning, with that increase driven by telehealth appointments and abortion pills.
[RELATED: Maine Has More Abortion Clinics Per Woman than Any Other State…]
The national monthly average number of abortions increased dramatically from the average in 2023, growing from 88,000 in 2023 to nearly 98,000 per month in the first six months of 2024.
That number was only 81,000 per month in 2022, the year when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to make their own rules on abortion restrictions.
The total number of abortions in the second quarter of 2024, 289,270, marked an 11 percent increase over the total number in the second quarter of 2023, 260,730.
The national increase in abortions is due, in large part, to a significant increase in “telehealth” abortions.
Telehealth appointments are usually conducted over the phone or online, where the provider prescribes some sort of abortion pill, such as mifepristone, to be sent to the patient through the mail.
Pro-life activists have challenged telehealth abortions, voicing concerns that they could be used by abusers to force victims of sex-trafficking to have abortions against their will.
The U.S. saw a 155% increase in telehealth abortions between the second quarters of 2022 and 2023, with the number increasing from 22,430 to 57,150.
The same time period saw a minor decrease in in-person abortions, dropping by three percent from 238,000 to 232,000.
Women seeking abortions in states with abortion bans or very restrictive abortion laws use telehealth appointments and mailed abortion pills to circumvent those restrictions.
Some states, including Maine, have shield laws protecting abortion providers who preform abortions for residents of states where they are illegal.
In many cases, women from restricted states can make telehealth appointments with doctors protected by shield laws and have abortion pills mailed to their homes, while the doctors face no legal repercussions.
The report’s overall findings show that despite the best efforts of pro-life activists and post-Roe v. Wade state-level restrictions, abortion numbers have continued to grow, and women in restricted states have found ways to circumvent the laws.
The Society of Family Planning report found that out of an average of 19,000 monthly telehealth abortions between April and June 2024, over 9,700 were provided to women in states with abortion bans or severe restrictions.
The report broke down the data for states with total or six-week abortion bans and found that, in every state except Texas, Idaho, and Oklahoma, residents acquired more abortions in the second half of 2023 than in the second half of 2022.
For example, Mississippi had no in-state medical abortions in 2023 compared with 1,600 in the first six months of 2020.
However, in the same period in 2023, 1,735 women traveled out of state for abortions, compared with 1,250 in 2020, while 1,570 received abortion pills from doctors in states with shield laws.
The Society for Family Planning’s report came shortly after Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) released the statewide abortion data for 2023 last Tuesday.
“Maine right to life is heartbroken to see this increase of abortions performed,” said Lori Cloutier of Maine Right to Life speaking with The Maine Wire, “We’re going to still obviously continue to advocate for the culture of life.”
The publicly available data show that 2,502 abortions were performed in Maine in 2023, 277 more than were carried out in 2022.
Maine women received the majority of those abortions, but 134 women came from out of state to seek an abortion in Maine.
A few women came from states that have imposed strict abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, with two women coming from Alabama and two from Georgia.
Women between 25 and 29 had the most abortions, at 672, closely followed by the 662 procured by women between 20 and 24.
Minors received 84 abortions, with children between 10 and 14 years old receiving seven of them.
While the majority of the total abortions, 1,873, were performed before nine weeks of pregnancy, 16 occurred at 20 weeks, and 13 occurred later than that, although the data does not specify the number of weeks after 20.
In 2022, there were only three abortions at 20 weeks and three later.
The increase in late-term abortions in 2023 coincided with a change in Maine’s abortion laws, championed by Gov. Janet Mills, intended to remove restrictions on late-term abortions.
Gov. Mills signed LD 1619 into law in July 2023, altering the legal requirements for late-term abortions.
Before the change, the state only allowed late-term abortions past the point of viability, roughly 22-23 weeks, if there was a significant risk to the mother.
Now, any woman can receive a late-term abortion up to birth if it is deemed necessary for any reason by a doctor.
Really? no one cares if liberals kill their children, carry on.
Progressivism
You have to love it, unless you re unborn
Suicide/satanic cult
The hell with inflation, World War 3, illegal immigration, etc, etc. The liberal women’s ONLY campaign issue…ABORTION. IT”S THEIR ONLY ISSUE. A woman could be expunging a child, (for them comparing it to taking a dump), and if the entire body of that carbon based life form is out with only a foot still inside the mother, they can still KILL it here in Maine. They are truely AWFL’s.
Murder is always killing, but killing is not always murder. (Pro-capital punishment and NO our military are not murderers when in combat) Murder is the willful causation of death of an innocent. There is NOBODY more innocent than a preborn baby! Pray for the babies
WTF do these crazy women need all these abortions for anyway ?
Did they recently outlaw birth control also ?
Doesn’t Planned Parenthood give out free birth control ?
When did they decide killing the babies was better than passing out birth control pills and condoms ?
So somebody thinks killing them is better than preventing them in the first place .
Vote these fucking crazy people out of office .
We have GOT TO regain some sanity in this state and country !
Oh sorry I forgot . My bad .
When they learned they could get rich selling the dead baby parts !
The bloodlust among Democrats is clear for all to see. If they can’t kill children in the womb, they advocate mutilating it after birth.
Democrats are very sick people!
Why is is that 99.9% of women who need abortions are too skanky looking for ANYONE to have sex with?
And most of those advocating for abortion are too old to ever need one!