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.