The Center for Disease Control has released statistics on abortion in America for the year 2008. Out of 45 states and the District of Columbia, Arkansas ranked 30, with 4,781 abortions performed. Five states, California, Florida, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Wyoming, could not be included in the CDC’s figures for various reasons.

The five states with the most abortions performed in 2008 were New York (124,304), Texas (81,155), Illinois (42,413), Pennsylvania (38,801), and Georgia (35,888).

The five states with the least abortions (in other words, the ones who are doing something right) were South Dakota (848), North Dakota (1,386), Idaho (1,481), Vermont (1,491), and Alaska (1,753).

Here is a list of all 45 states surveyed, taken from the CDC’s latest report (Note: These numbers are approximated based on portions of the CDC’s report; totals provided by the CDC for each state are inconsistent throughout the report because of different reporting methods used by different states; by some estimations, Arkansas may have had as many as 5,000 abortions performed, 15% of which were on out-of-state residents).

# State No. Abortions
1 New York 124,304
2 Texas 81,155
3 Illinois†† 42,413
4 Pennsylvania 38,801
5 Georgia 35,888
6 North Carolina 30,574
7 Ohio 29,325
8 New Jersey§§ 28,475
9 Virginia 28,401
10 Michigan 25,965
11 Washington 24,288
12 Massachusetts 23,874
13 Tennessee 18,197
14 Connecticut 13,827
15 Minnesota 12,948
16 Colorado 11,560
17 Alabama 11,268
18 Indiana 10,933
19 Kansas 10,604
20 Oregon 10,561
21 Nevada 10,338
22 Arizona 10,323
23 Wisconsin†† 8,008
24 Missouri 7,413
25 South Carolina 7,159
26 Louisiana 6,713
27 Iowa 6,475
28 Oklahoma 6,427
29 New Mexico 5,295
30 Arkansas 4,781
31 Delaware 4,603
32 Rhode Island 4,502
33 Kentucky 4,269
34 Utah 3,848
35 Hawaii 3,267
36 Nebraska 2,813
37 Mississippi 2,770
38 Maine 2,620
39 District of Columbia¶ 2,553
40 Montana 2,124
41 West Virginia 1,983
42 Alaska 1,753
43 Vermont 1,491
44 Idaho 1,481
45 North Dakota 1,386
46 South Dakota 848

¶ Because reporting is not mandatory, information could not be obtained for all abortions performed in the District of Columbia.

†† Includes residents only.

§§ Data from hospitals and licensed ambulatory care facilities only; because reporting is not mandatory for private physicians and women’s centers, information could not be obtained for all abortions performed in New Jersey.