The number of abortions performed in the United States rose eight percent in a three-year period — from 862,320 in 2017 to 930,160 by 2020 — marking a significant uptick in the number of abortions performed nationally after nearly three decades of decline, according to the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute.
The abortion rate jumped from 13.5 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age to 14.4 during those same three years, though Politico notes that the actual rate is probably higher, as women are increasingly taking abortion pills at home, and Guttmacher only counted abortions performed at medical facilities.
About 20 percent of pregnancies ended in abortion in 2020.
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The Associated Press reported that states that expanded Medicaid access to abortion services saw particularly large increases. In Illinois, for example, abortions increased by 25 percent after the state began allowing Medicaid funds to be used for abortion in Jan. 2019.
The Guttmacher report, wrote conservative New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, suggests "a plausible narrative in which the Trump years were quite bad for cultural conservatism in most ways except for judicial nominations."
"This is less obvious today because progressivism's cultural power advanced so far that it has now generated a backlash and Roe v. Wade may be about to fall," he added.
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