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= Abortion statistics in the United States = Abortion statistics In the United States vary by source because reporting is not mandatory. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Guttmacher Institute regularly report these statistics using different methodologies.

Abortion statistics are commonly presented as the number of abortions, the abortion rate (the number abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) or the abortion ratio (the number of abortions per 1,000 live births to women ages 15 to 44).

CDC surveillance reports
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) began abortion surveillance reports in 1969 to document the number a acteristics of women obtaining legal induced abortions. CDC compiles the data that most states, the District of Columbia and New York City collect to produce national estimates. The CDC numbers, published annually, are derived from actual counts of every abortion reported to state health departments. Reporting to the CDC is not mandatory and some states choose not to report abortions to the CDC. CDC’s surveillance system compiles information on legal induced abortions only. Because reporting is voluntary, CDC surveillance reports undercount the actual number of abortions in the United States. For 2015, CDC reported 638,169 abortions from 49 of the 52 reporting areas. The abortion rate was 11.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years, and the abortion ratio was 188 abortions per 1,000 live births. Between 1970 and 2015, CDC reports nearly 45.7 million legal induced abortions.

Note that there is a large decrease in reported abortions between 1997 and 1998. This is because CDC's reporting areas were reduced from 52 in 1997 to 47 in 1998. The actual decline from 1997 to 1998 in those 47 reporting areas was only 2%.

''Note: From 2006- 2015, CDC estimates are based on 49 reporting areas (the health departments of 47 states, the District of Columbia, and New York City). California, Maryland, and New Hampshire do not currently report to the CDC on abortion surveillance.''

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Guttmacher Institute estimates
To address the limitations of the CDC and other survey estimates, the Guttmacher Institute periodically surveys all facilities that provide abortion services and estimates the number of abortions in the U.S. These estimates are typically higher than those reported of the CDC.

For 2014, the Guttmacher Institute reported 926,200 abortions, an abortion rate of 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 years.