A new Guttmacher Institute (a reproductive health research organisation) report estimates that about 1.13 million abortions occurred in the United States in 2025, representing an increase of less than 0.2% from 2024. This maintains the upward trend since the 2022 Dobbs ruling shifted abortion regulation back to state governments.
The report documented a decline in interstate travel for abortions, from about 170,000 in 2023 to 154,000 in 2024 and 142,000 in 2025. At the same time, telehealth abortions—essentially purchasing the abortion pill out of state—increased, rising to 91,000 abortion clients in states with total abortion bans in 2025, up from about 72,000 the previous year.
The figures emerge more than three years after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which returned abortion regulation to the states. In states with abortion bans, pro-life advocates have criticised “shield laws” in permissive states that protect abortion providers mailing pills and efforts to expand telemedicine, enabled by a 2023 FDA change allowing mifepristone prescriptions without an in-person visit.
Michael New, a pro-life professor with decades of analysis on abortion figures, lamented the news in comments to LifeNews, noting that this Guttmacher report provides further evidence that stopping telehealth abortions needs to be a top priority for pro-lifers.
It is important to note that despite abortion bans in various states, the abortion pill now accounts for approximately two-thirds of all abortions in the US. Whilst telehealth abortion services are a workaround to abortion laws in the US, here in NZ, it is a deliberate public health policy to improve equity and access to abortion.
There has been a 37 percent increase since abortion was decriminalised in New Zealand, rising from 12,948 in 2019 to 17,785 in 2024. This aligns with the launch of DECIDE, the National Abortion Telehealth Service, in 2021. The latest abortion annual report indicates that this service accounted for 5,419 (30%) of all abortions in 2024, up from 3,889 in 2023.
These US figures represent more than statistics, equating to more than 3,000 unborn lives lost every day in the US alone. With the abortion pill now making up two-thirds of all procedures and telehealth services expanding in the US and even here in New Zealand, the fight has moved beyond just abortion clinics to include the letterbox.
*Written by Family First staff writers*
