Racial and ethnic distribution of abortions in select states U.S. 2021

The ethnic and racial distribution of legal abortions in the United States varies greatly by state. For example, in Idaho non-Hispanic white women accounted for 63 percent of all legal abortions in 2021, whereas only 17 percent of abortions in Mississippi were among white women. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 many states, such as Mississippi, have made abortion illegal with limited exceptions.

Which states have the most abortions?

In 2020, the states with the highest total number of legal abortions were Florida, New York, and Texas. That year there were around 79,817 legal abortions in the state of Florida. Florida also had the second highest rate of legal abortion per 100,000 women, with Illinois reporting the highest rate. The states with the lowest rates of abortion that year were Wyoming and Missouri.

Out-of-state abortions

As many states have banned or restricted abortion since the overturning of Roe v. Wade it is likely that more women will now have to travel out of state if they would like to receive an abortion. Even before the overturning of Roe v. Wade a significant percentage of abortions in many states were performed on out of state residents. For example, in 2021, around half of legal abortions in Kansas were performed on out-of-state residents, while out-of-state residents accounted for 27 percent of abortions in North Dakota. At that time, Illinois was the state with the highest total number of abortions performed on out-of-state residents, with around 11,300 such procedures.

Racial and ethnic distribution of legal abortions in select U.S. states in 2021*

Characteristic	Non-Hispanic black	Non-Hispanic white	Non-Hispanic other	Hispanic
Alabama	63.9%	26.8%	2.9%	6.4%
Florida	37.5%	29.8%	3.7%	29.1%
Georgia	69%	17.4%	4.6%	9.1%
Idaho	3.4%	63.1%	4.6%	28.9%
Kansas	26%	48.4%	8.7%	17%
Michigan	56.6%	35.6%	4.9%	3%
Mississippi	80.1%	16.8%	0.9%	2.2%
Nevada	22.1%	33.7%	10.6%	33.5%
North Carolina	51.5%	27.3%	7.5%	13.7%
Utah	4.4%	54.9%	7.9%	32.8%
Virginia	47.2%	33.1%	9.5%	10.2%

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Release date

November 2023

More information

Region

United States

Survey time period

2021

Supplementary notes

* As data are reported voluntarily by providers to state or area health departments, information may be incomplete and result in undercounting abortions when calculating rates and ratios in some states. Abortions by state of occurrence include abortions obtained by non-residents of the state as well as those obtained by residents.

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