Republican States Claim Zero Abortions While Medical Professionals Call Statistics Ludicrous

In nearly a dozen states with total or near-total abortion bans, government officials claimed that zero or very few abortions occurred in 2023, the first full year after the Supreme Court eliminated federal abortion rights. Those statistics, the most recent available and published in government records, have been celebrated by anti-abortion activists. However, medical professionals say such accounts are not only untrue but fundamentally dishonest.

Official Statistics in Restricted States

In Arkansas, state health officials announced a stunning statistic for 2023: The total number of abortions in the state, where some 1.5 million women live, was zero. In South Dakota, too, official records show zero abortions that year. And in Idaho, home to abortion battles that have recently made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the official number of recorded abortions was just five.

“To say there are no abortions going on in South Dakota is ludicrous,” said Amy Kelley, an OB-GYN in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She cited female patients who have come to her hospital after taking abortion pills or to have medical procedures meant to prevent death or end nonviable pregnancies. “I can think of five off the top of my head that I dealt with,” she said, “and I have 15 partners.”

Comparative Data on Reported Abortions

State officials reported a sharp decline in the official number of abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The following data highlights the reported figures for 2023 compared to previous years:

• Arkansas: Reported 0 abortions in 2023, compared with 1,621 in 2022.
• Texas: Reported 60 in 2023, after reporting 50,783 abortions in the state in 2021.
• Idaho: Reported 5 in 2023 compared with 1,553 in 2021.
• South Dakota: Reported 0 in 2023 compared with 192 abortions in 2021.

The Role of Data Collection and Telehealth

For some data scientists, these statistics suggest a potential politicization of vital statistics. “It’s so clinically dishonest,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a public health scientist at the University of California-San Francisco. She explains that the zeroing out is statistically unlikely and also runs counter to the reality that pregnancy “comes with many risks and in many cases emergency abortion care will be needed.”

The discrepancies often stem from how state data is gathered. A spokesperson for the Arkansas Department of Health, Ashley Whitlow, said that the department “is not able to track abortions that take place out of the state or outside of a healthcare facility.” State officials collect data only from “in-state providers and facilities for the Induced Abortion data reports as required by Arkansas law.”

Furthermore, WeCount’s tallies of observed telehealth abortions do not appear in the official state numbers. For instance, from April to June 2024 it counted an average of 240 telehealth abortions a month in Arkansas. While anti-abortion activists cite these statistics as a success, clinicians remain skeptical of the official count. “We know they are sometimes necessary to save the pregnant person’s life,” Upadhyay said, “so I do hope there are abortions occurring in South Dakota.”