The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services was late in releasing the 2022 statistics. Abortion statistics for 2021 are only made available last year, so we will report on both. In 2021, there were a total 32,454 total abortion occurrences. This is an increase from 30,004 abortions in 2020.
However, abortion statistics for 2022 show that there were 28,850 abortions on women in residence in North Carolina, but a total of 40,037 abortions were performed in the State. The incidence of out-of-state women having abortions in North Carolina has more than doubled according to the statistics.
YEAR | OCCURRENCE (including abortions from out of State) | RESIDENT (Those performed on NC women only) | TOTAL Abortions from Out of State |
2022 | 40,037 | 28,850 | 11,187 |
2021 | 32,454 | 27,305 | 5,149 |
2020 | 30,004 | 25,058 | 4,946 |
2019 | 28,450 | 23,495 | 4,955 |
2018 | 27,581 | 23,018 | 4,563 |
2017 | 27,138 | 22,677 | 4,461 |
2016 | 27,138 | 23,070 | 4,068 |
Tragically, abortion numbers have been increasing over the years. This is certainly fueled by a steadily growing population in North Carolina, but it has also been affected by various states’ legislation. Total pregnancies for North Carolina women (abortion outcomes included) was 150,407 in 2022, which means that 19.18% or almost 1 in 5 pregnancies were terminated. This is a tragic reality.
Marriage seems to make the most difference in abortion rates, with between 66 to 79% of abortions occurring in women who are unmarried. For instance, in 2021, there were 21,803 abortions in North Carolina in women who were not married, 79.8% of the total abortions for that year.
And chemical or ‘medical’ abortions have been rising dramatically. These so-called ‘medical’ abortions are in fact the two-pill regime of the chemicals mifepristone and misoprostol, otherwise known as RU486. In 2022, they composed greater than 69% of all abortions according to the North Carolina Division of Public Health (NCDPH) vital statistics.
| Chemical Abortions (RU486) | Surgical Abortions (Curretage & D&E) |
2012[1] | 5,127 (24.3%) | 15,051 (71.8%) |
2018 | 10,108 | 11,490 |
2020 | 14,813 | 9,365 |
2021 | 17,937 | 8,386 |
2022 | 19,967 (69.2%) | 8,556 (29.7%) |
This is cause for great concern as the chemical abortions, apart from killing the unborn child, wreak havoc on the woman’s body and have a much higher complication rate than surgical abortion. In fact, there is a reported 20% complication rate with RU486, involving excessive bleeding, retained body parts, incomplete abortion and other complications requiring emergency room visits.
The Charlotte Lozier Institute reports, “Studies have found that chemical abortion has four times the complication rate of surgical abortion, and these risks only increase with advanced pregnancy and lack of medical supervision.”
Most striking are the abortion rates of women ages 15 – 44 by ethnicity. African American women have consistently had a disproportionate number of abortions. In 2021 the African American population (resident and non-resident) had 51.5% of the total abortions, despite being only 22.2% of the total population. The situation continues is 2022.
TABLE 6. Number and percentage of reported abortions, by known race and ethnicity and reporting area. (Latest figures available from the CDC website: Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2021 | MMWR (cdc.gov)).
Table 6
North Carolina | Black | White | other | Hispanic | Total abortions |
2021 (Resident & non-resident) | 15,946 (51.5%) | 8,473 (27.3%) | 2,311 (7.5%) | 4,256 (13.7) % | 30,986 (95.5 %) |
2021 (Resident only) | 13,360 | 7,463 | 2,563 | 3,919 | 27,303 |
2022 (Resident only) | 13,655 (47.3%) | 7,637 (26.5%) | 3,108 (10.7%) | 4,455 (15.4%) | 28,855 (99.9%) |
“The high rates of abortion in the African American and Hispanic populations remain a problem throughout much of the United States, but it is particularly concerning to see it happening in our own State,” said Dr. Bill Pincus, President of NCRTL. “This is something that must be addressed by the pro-life community.”
It is clear that education on the physical, psychological and spiritual harms of abortion must continue and be especially renewed among the populations that are most at risk – unwed women in both the African American and Hispanic populations.
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Sources:
https://schs.dph.ncdhhs.gov/data/vital/pregnancies/2021/ last accessed on Jan 24, 2024
https://schs.dph.ncdhhs.gov/data/vital/pregnancies/2021/Table7-2012-2021-AbortionCharacteristics.pdf last accessed on Jan 24, 2024.
https://lozierinstitute.org/abortion-drug-facts/#risk-to-women last accessed on Jan 24, 2024.
https://schs.dph.ncdhhs.gov/data/vital/pregnancies/2022/ last accessed on March 15, 2024