Following Friday’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, abortion laws are being sent back to individual states to decide on their own.
Indiana lawmakers are expected to revamp the state’s abortion laws at some point this summer, with the Republican supermajority likely pulling back sharply or potentially outlawing abortions completely.
But what’s the situation looks like in Indiana currently?
The Indiana Department of Health’s annual “2020 Terminated Pregnancy Report” provides data on the utilization of abortion services in the state.
The annual reports for the last 20 years — 2020 is the most recent available and 2000 the first available — are online here: in.gov/health/vital-records/vital-statistics/terminated-pregnancy-reports/
Here is a summary of the the key aspects of that most recent report:
• In 2020, there were 7,756 pregnancies terminated in Indiana. Of those, 7,372 (95.05%) were for Hoosier women, while 384 (4.95%) were out-of-state residents.
• Of the non-residents seeking an abortion in Indiana, 200 were from Kentucky, 75 from Illinois, 55 from Michigan, 27 from Ohio, 16 from Tennessee and 11 from other areas.
• Of the 2020 total, county-of-residence totals for the local area were 284 from Allen County; 14 from DeKalb County; 14 from Whitley County; eight from Noble County; six from Steuben County; and four from LaGrange County.
• The 2020 abortion total was up slightly, 1.56%, from 2019’s total of 7,637. Despite the small increase, 2020’s abortion total was the third-lowest amount in the last 20 years, topped by only 2019 (7,637) and 2016 (7,280).
• Abortion numbers have been in long-range decline for the last two decades in Indiana. Abortion totals were 12,272 in 2000 — the highest one-year total in the past two decades — with current numbers representing a 36.8% decrease in annual totals over the last 20 years.
• Annual abortion numbers in Indiana dipped below 10,000 for the first time in 2011 and have remained under that threshold every year since.
• In 2020, slightly over two-thirds of abortions, 5,258 (67.79%) were completed before eight weeks of gestation.
• By the time a woman typically discovers she is pregnant after missing a period, she would be considered four weeks pregnant, as pregnancy is timed since the woman’s last completed period. That means that about two-thirds of Hoosier women terminated their pregnancy within about one month of discovery.
• A total of 2,429 (31.12%) of abortions in Indiana were performed during weeks 9-13 of gestation, while only 43 (0.55%) were performed between 14-20 weeks and 26 (0.34%) occurred after 21 weeks of pregnancy.
• Slightly over half of abortions, 54.82%, were performed non-surgically via oral medication, compared to 45.18% performed surgically.
• The median age of a woman seeking an abortion in Indiana was 31.5 years old, with the average age being close at 31.8 years.
• About half of women seeking abortions were white (49.38%) followed by Black at (34.58%). People identified as white only represent 84.8% of all Hoosiers, while Black residents make up just 9.9% of the state’s population.
• About 85% of women seeking an abortion in Indiana in 2020 were unmarried.
• About 91% of women seeking an abortion in Indiana in 2020 had a GED, high school diploma or higher. About 89.3% of all Hoosiers over age 25 have at least a high school diploma or GED.
• Indiana has approximately 1.28 million women age 15-44, so abortion rates are currently slightly above 5 per 1,000 residents, or 0.5% annually.
• Indiana had 79,058 live births in 2020.
• Abortion is more common in women under age 20. For those younger than 16, there were 164 births to 55 abortions (2.98 births per abortion); 804 births and 142 abortions for girls aged 16 and 17 (5.66 births per abortion); and 3,233 births to 518 abortions for teens age 18 and 19 (6.24 births per abortion). Abortion ratios are lowest for women aged 30-34.
• Women with a bachelor’s degree or higher made up 15.95% of those receiving an abortion in 2020. About 27.8% of all Hoosier women over age 25 hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Of the 7,756 women who had a terminated pregnancy in 2020, 4,847 (62.5%) indicated they previously had a live birth of a child still living; 76 (0.97%) said they previously had a live birth for a child that is now deceased; 2,463 (31.77%) had terminated a previous pregnancy; and 1,428 (18.41%) previously experienced a miscarriage.
• Of the women with still-living children who received an abortion in 2020, 40.3% have one child, 33.44% have two children and 26.26% have three or more children.
• In 2020, Indiana had seven clinics providing abortion services, located in Merrillville, Lafayette, Bloomington, South Bend and Indianapolis (three locations). Eighty-eight abortions in 2020 were performed at five acute-care hospitals in Indiana.
• Indiana had zero maternal deaths related to abortion in 2020.
• Eighty-eight women had an unsuccessful first abortion attempt via oral pills and had to return to a facility for a second procedure, with 79 of those women then having a surgical termination.
• Forty-five women reported a complication from their termination.