New data from the Arizona Department of Health Services shows how shifting laws have continued to impact abortions in the state.
The latest annual abortion report covers abortions performed in Arizona in 2024.
The report shows about 60% of abortion-seekers in 2024 were women in their 20s. Many were single mothers — 86% were unmarried, and more than half already had one or more children.
That demographic data is all fairly consistent with data from prior years.
What was different in 2024 was the overall number of abortions in the state and the point in pregnancy when abortions were performed.
Before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Arizonans typically had between 12,000 and 13,000 abortions per year, or about nine to 10 abortions per 1,000 women.
After the Dobbs decision, from 2022 to 2024, Arizonans had fewer than 12,000 abortions per year, and the annual rate dropped below nine abortions per 1,000 women.
For most of 2023 and 2024, Arizona enforced a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of gestation. In 2021, the last full year before that law took effect, more than 1,100 abortions – about 8% of the total that year – occurred at 15 weeks or later. In 2024, about 160 abortions – about 1% of the total – were at 15 weeks or later.
The next annual report will likely reflect another shift.
At the end of 2024, voters approved a measure to enshrine broad abortion rights in the state constitution and providers have since resumed abortions beyond 15 weeks.
And now, some providers want to see more policy changes in Arizona. A group of Arizona doctors is suing to overturn a state ban on prescribing abortion pills via telemedicine, a ban on abortions when fetal abnormalities have been diagnosed, and a mandatory 24-hour wait to get an abortion.
Some in Arizona politics also want to do away with the annual abortion reports.
The state health department has tracked abortions since lawmakers passed a law requiring the data in 2010. Patients’ personal details are kept anonymous in the reports. But Gov. Katie Hobbs has called the reports an invasive form of government surveillance and has called for the law requiring them to be repealed.
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State lawmakers are moving to make criminals out of doctors and pharmacists who send abortion-inducing drugs to Arizona women — as well as those who seek them — but questions remain over whether the bill is constitutional. -
Planned Parenthood Arizona is offering new services and has seen an uptick in patients after a February ruling blocking many abortion restrictions in the state. -
It’s been two years since Arizona voters overwhelmingly passed Proposition 139 into law, enshrining abortion rights until about 24 weeks gestation in the state Constitution. -
Medical residency applications have dropped significantly in abortion-restricted states following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. -
A new lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union contends that the state can’t stop “advanced practice clinicians” — like nurse practitioners — from performing abortions in Arizona.
