Fact Sheet: Gestational Breakdown of Brick-and-Mortar Abortion Centers in The United States

With the significant changes to state abortion laws after the Dobbs decision in June 2022, most abortions being performed are now concentrated in 37 states and D.C. This resource will focus on the abortions being performed at brick-and-mortar centers in these locations, though drug-induced abortions obtained via online-only organizations that mail abortion drugs in these states, and sometimes even into states that prohibit abortion, are also occurring. The maximum gestational age at which a center will perform an abortion differs amongst centers across the states and sometimes differs from the maximum gestational age permitted by state law. To see the current breakdown of when and how many abortion centers perform abortions at certain gestational weeks, see Table 1 here.

Methodology:

The Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) maintains an internal spreadsheet with all the operative abortion centers listed in public-facing online directories maintained by Ineedana. Ineedana is a website that lists independent abortion centers, abortion-performing Planned Parenthoods, and hospital/doctor’s offices that perform abortions. “Abortion centers” in the context of this CLI resource include all three entities. CLI verifies that all listings are updated and accurate by visiting the websites of each listing once a month. The internal spreadsheet breaks down the gestational ages at which centers perform drug-induced and/or surgical abortions. The table, which will be updated yearly, contains aggregate totals from CLI’s spreadsheet.^[1]

To access a PDF version of this fact sheet that includes the table, click the “Print/Download” button above. 

[1] Because there are over 850 abortion centers providing abortions at such different gestational ages, standardized gestational cut off dates had to be used to categorize this data. Because of this, the column labeled “<7 (Through 6 weeks Gest.)” didn’t capture the abortion centers in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and South Carolina that perform abortions through five weeks of gestation due to these states’ six week/heartbeat laws. Additionally, if there is a discrepancy between the gestational limits listed on a center’s website and those reported by Ineedana, CLI always uses those listed by the center’s website.