Abortion Reporting: Kentucky (2024)

In 2024, nine brick-and-mortar abortions were reported in Kentucky by the state’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services. After Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24, 2022, the state prohibited abortion from conception on the very same day. The law (KRS §311.722) was then blocked on June 30, but went back into effect later that summer on August 1 and has remained in effect since. The state’s life-at-conception law allows abortion in cases where a continued pregnancy would threaten the life and/or physical health of the mother. All nine brick-and-mortar abortions reported by the state were performed because of these exceptions. Three abortions were performed because the mother’s life was endangered, and one abortion each was performed due to cases of:

• Acute promyelocytic leukemia
• A non-viable molar pregnancy to prevent complications
• Metastatic osteosarcoma that required immediate attention
• Advanced heart failure, cardiogenic shock, and/or cardiac instability
• Previable PPROM
• PPROM/chorioamnionitis

The data published by the state doesn’t include the total number of abortions obtained by Kentucky residents out of state or the number of self-managed abortions performed by women outside of the healthcare system. The report also does not contain the total number of mail-order abortion drugs obtained by Kentucky residents prescribed by licensed abortionists in other states with shield laws. Below, Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) will describe data provided by the Guttmacher Institute’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study that details the total number of Kentucky women who traveled out of state to obtain an abortion in 2024. Guttmacher’s abortion estimates include the number of abortions obtained at brick-and-mortar facilities and those provided via telehealth and virtual providers in states where such abortions are still legal. CLI will also describe data from the Society of Family Planning’s #WeCount project that details the number of abortion drugs mailed to Kentucky women.

The state’s statute code defines abortion as “any act with the intent to terminate the clinically diagnosable pregnancy of a woman known to be pregnant with knowledge that the termination by those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child” (KRS §311.720).

Abortion Totals and Trends

There were nine abortions reported in Kentucky compared to the 23 that were reported in the previous year. In 2024, there were four drug-induced abortions, while there were 10 in 2023 (Fig. 1). CLI estimates that Kentucky’s abortion rate was 0.01 abortions per 1,000 women of childbearing age (Fig. 2).¹

State Report Summary

In 2024, all nine abortions were performed on state residents. One abortion was performed on a girl between the ages of 15 and 19, and, as the report notes, that one abortion was performed on a minor. One abortion was obtained by a woman between the ages of 20 to 24. Six abortions were obtained by women in their thirties, and one by a woman aged 40 or older. One abortion killed an unborn baby whose father was between the ages of 30 and 35, and one baby’s father was between the ages of 35 and 39. The age of the father was not known for seven of the reported abortions.

Six of the abortions were performed on white women, while two were performed on black women. One abortion was performed on a woman whose race was unknown. Two abortions were obtained by Hispanic women, while seven were obtained by non-Hispanic women.

Three of the abortions reported in Kentucky were obtained by women with no previous live births. Three were performed on women with one previous live birth, and another three on women who had two or more previous live births. Seven of the abortions were obtained by women who had never had a previous abortion. Two abortions were performed on women with one prior abortion. Two abortions were obtained by women who had not previously been pregnant, while another two were obtained by women who had one previous pregnancy. Five abortions were performed on women who had two or more previous pregnancies.

Four of the abortions reported in Kentucky were drug-induced. One abortion was performed via a dilation and evacuation procedure, and another one via hysterectomy or hysterotomy. Three were performed using the suction curettage procedure.

Two abortions were performed between seven and eight weeks of gestation, while another two were performed between 13 and 15 weeks of gestation. Three abortions were obtained between 16 and 19 weeks, and two were obtained at 21 weeks or later. The latest gestational age at which a woman obtained an abortion was 22 weeks. Ultrasound alone was used in seven cases to confirm the gestational ages of the unborn babies killed by abortion. A combination of an ultrasound and a woman’s last menstrual period was used in one case, and IVF was used in another case.

Kentucky also collects data on abortions by post-fertilization age, which is around two weeks earlier than the unborn babies’ gestational age. One abortion was performed between five and six weeks’ post-fertilization, and another one was performed between seven and eight weeks’ post-fertilization. Two abortions were performed on women between 11 and 12 weeks’ post-fertilization, and one between 13 and 14 weeks. Two abortions were obtained by women who were between 15 and 17 weeks’ post-fertilization, while one was performed on a woman between 18 and 19 weeks’ post-fertilization. One abortion was obtained at 20 weeks’ post-fertilization or later. Ultrasound alone was used to confirm the post-fertilization age of seven  unborn babies. One case utilized a combination of an ultrasound and a woman’s last menstrual period, and one case used the pathology of the unborn child killed by the abortion. A pathological examination was performed in five cases and not performed in four cases.

Due to Kentucky’s law prohibiting elective abortions, no abortions were performed at Planned Parenthood locations in Kentucky or independent abortion centers. All nine abortions were performed at hospitals. Five abortions were performed at the University of Louisville Hospital, two at Chandler Medical Center, and one each at the Norton Hospital and Norton Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

In 2024, there was one reported complication—a case of pulmonary embolism.² All nine abortions involved a mother with preexisting medical conditions. Women were tested for an STD in five cases and were not tested in four cases. In three cases, women with Rh-negative status were “provided with a Rh negative information fact sheet and treated with the prevailing medical standard of care to prevent harmful fetal or child outcomes or Rh incompatibility in future pregnancies.” In two cases, the fact sheet was not given to the woman obtaining an abortion, and whether the fact sheet was given to the woman was unknown in four cases.

The heartbeat of eight of the nine unborn children aborted in Kentucky in 2024 was detected. A heartbeat was not detected in one of the unborn babies. Methods used to detect the heartbeat included ultrasounds and Doppler transabdominal ultrasounds. The unborn child was not viable in all nine cases. In 2024, two babies were born alive following an attempted abortion. For the first time, the 2024 report noted how long each born-alive baby survived after the attempted abortion. One of the born-alive babies lived for two hours and fifty minutes, and one lived for 21 minutes.

One of the abortions was obtained in February, three in April, and one each in July, August, and September. Two were performed in December.

Guttmacher Data³

In 2024, Guttmacher estimated that 4,470 women traveled out of Kentucky to obtain abortions. For the number of abortions obtained by Kentucky women in other states, according to Guttmacher, see the following table:

#WeCount reported that abortion drugs were mailed to 2,780 Kentucky women. While the state reported that nine abortions occurred at brick-and-mortar hospitals within state lines, other sources of data provide a more complete picture of abortion totals in the state.

State Ranking

In CLI’s 2024 reevaluation of abortion reporting requirements across the country, Kentucky’s reporting was tied for fourth best. The state has vastly improved its reporting since 2016, when CLI originally evaluated abortion reporting across the country, and added several important categories of data in its 2023 abortion report. However, the completeness of Kentucky’s data could be improved by adding back data points on abortions by marital status, education status, whether the unborn baby was given the best chance at survival during the abortion, and the breakdown of abortions by previous miscarriages. Kentucky could continue to make improvements by reporting the categories of data it left out of the 2023 and 2024 reports and requiring all health care providers, including emergency room providers, to report abortion complications they treat.

1. National rates were calculated by the Guttmacher Institute. Kentucky rates were calculated by CLI using the following formula: (total number of abortions performed in Kentucky ÷ number of resident women ages 15-44 [based on most recent population estimates]) x 1,000. Rates may differ slightly from previous CLI articles due to revised population estimates. Population estimates were obtained from the CDC WONDER database. Estimates for 2005-2009 are intercensal estimates of the July 1 resident population. Estimates for 2010-2019 are Vintage 2020 postcensal estimates of the July 1 resident population. Estimates for 2020-2024 are Vintage 2023 postcensal estimates of the July 1 resident population. Estimates were produced by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics. Rates for 2024 were calculated using the Vintage 2023 postcensal estimates because 2024 population estimates have not yet been released by the CDC.
2. Statistics on abortion complications reported here represent a minimal number of deaths and complications, as this data is collected in a non-systematic and non-verifiable way. As such, this data cannot be used to calculate either an accurate abortion mortality rate or an accurate abortion complication rate for the state.
3. The Guttmacher Institute notes that its monthly abortion totals by states are estimates and that each state’s estimate is within a range of uncertainty. Guttmacher also notes that their estimates do not reflect self-managed abortions or those obtained by women in states with total abortion bans under shield laws. This information is updated as of October 14, 2025. Guttmacher’s travel and residence data can be found here (State_Abortion_Travel_2024.csv).
4. #WeCount’s data can be found hereby downloading the “Report data tables [.xlsx]” document. The #WeCount report specifies that the numbers included in their tables for abortions performed under shield laws only represent the number of women whom abortion drugs were sent to, not the number of drug-induced abortions that were a result of the mailed drugs. However, because #WeCount’s data is the only source of data that delineates the number of abortions by mode of provision (in-person, telehealth/mail-order, and/or abortion drugs obtained under shield laws), their data is the best available.
5. Kentucky published reports for 2017 through 2023 online and provided CLI with reports for 2015 through 2018. Abortion totals for 2005 through 2014 were taken from the annual abortion surveillance reports published by the CDC. Kentucky first reported drug-induced abortion data to the CDC in 2008.

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