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has called the reports an invasive form of government surveillance and has called for the law requiring them to be repealed.
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The case involves state laws that ban certain advanced practice clinicians like specially trained nurse practitioners from providing abortion services — something they’ve historically done.
