Less than 1% of Pennsylvania women received abortions, according to latest data

HARRISBURG — How many abortions are conducted in Pennsylvania?

The latest available state Department of Health data show there were 32,123 abortions performed in Pennsylvania in 2020. Approximately half of those abortions — 14,813 procedures — were performed on white women and 14,177 on Black women. The remaining 3,133 women who received abortions were Asian, multiracial or of an unknown race. This calculates out to about .5% of the state’s 6.54 million women got an abortion in 2020.

Clinics performed abortions in only 14 counties — including Montour County, where two women received abortions, and Union County, where one woman received an abortion. Women in all 67 of Pennsylvania’s counties received abortions in 2020, according to the Department of Health.

Nearly two-thirds of all abortions were completed within eight weeks of gestation in 2020. Of those that took place after the eighth week of pregnancy, most took place during the ninth or 10th weeks of pregnancy. Further out, only 438 abortions took place between the 21st and 23rd weeks of pregnancy, and only 599 took place during the 18th and 20th weeks.

More than half of all abortions were medical abortions, which is a nonsurgical procedure where someone takes an abortion pill to end their pregnancy.

Allegheny County is the only county that has clinics that will perform abortions in Western Pennsylvania, as of 2020 data from the Department of Health. Otherwise, Western Pennsylvania residents would need to visit clinics in Dauphin or York counties in southcentral Pennsylvania to receive an abortion.