Tennessee Abortions Drop 47% During First Six Months of Abortion Ban

Tennessee’s 2022 abortion statistics have not been released on the website of the Tennessee Department of Health, nor have the state’s 2021 statistics, but Tennessee has again provided abortion totals and some demographic information to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for inclusion in its 2022 abortion surveillance report.

The data published by the CDC does not include the total number of abortions obtained by Tennessee residents out of state and the number of self-managed abortions on women outside of the healthcare system.

It is also unlikely that the report contains the number of mail-order abortion drugs obtained by Tennessee residents prescribed by licensed abortion providers in other states.   In a separate section, Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) will describe data provided by the Guttmacher Institute’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study that details the number of abortions obtained by Tennessee women in other states. Guttmacher’s abortion estimates include the number of abortions obtained at brick-and-mortar facilities and those provided via telehealth and virtual providers in the United States.

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Statistics and Changes in Tennessee Abortions, 2021-2022

Planned Parenthood’s Tennessee abortion market share is not included in the abortion report.

Abortion Totals and Trends

According to the CDC, there were 6,452 abortions performed in Tennessee in 2022, a decrease of 47% from the previous year and the lowest total ever reported by Tennessee since CLI started tracking Tennessee’s abortion data from 2008. The number of drug-induced abortions decreased by 50% from 2021. CLIestimates that Tennessee’s state abortion rate decreased by 48% to 4.6 abortions per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 (Fig. 2).¹

A majority (79%) of abortions performed in Tennessee in 2022 were on state residents, while 21% were performed on non-residents primarily from Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Virginia. Mississippi women made up the largest percentage of non-resident women. Additionally, the CDC reported that there were 10,541 abortions performed on Tennessee residents in and out of Tennessee. Of those 10,541 resident abortions, 5,119 were performed on Tennessee residents in Tennessee and 5,422 were obtained by Tennessee residents in other states. Of those 5,422 abortions, 196 were obtained in unknown states. To see the breakdown of the states where Tennessee women traveled to obtain abortions in 2022, see below:

• Illinois – 2,109 abortions
• Georgia – 1,298
• North Carolina – 1,010
• Virginia – 290
• Alabama – 160
• Kentucky –123
• Indiana – 102
• South Carolina – 74
• Florida – 60

CDC Summary

The data Tennessee provided to the CDC, subsequently published in the CDC’s 2022 report, was occurrence data on all abortions that were obtained in the state regardless of women’s residence status. Eight percent of the abortions were performed on girls ages 19 or younger, including 14 abortions on girls under the age of 15. Twenty-nine percent were performed on women in their early twenties, and 31% on women in their later twenties. Twenty-nine percent of the abortions were obtained by women in their thirties, and 3% were performed on women in their forties. Age was not reported for one abortion.

A majority of abortions that occurred in Tennessee were performed on non-Hispanic black women (53%), while 31% were performed on non-Hispanic white women and 3% on non-Hispanic women of other races. Eight percent were performed on Hispanic women and 3% on women of unknown races. CLI estimates that Tennessee’s black abortion rate was 13.3, over six times the white abortion rate of 2.1.

Eighty-seven percent of the abortions were performed on unmarried women. Eleven percent were performed on married women and 2% on women of unknown martial status. A majority of the women undergoing abortions in Tennessee (63%) reported no prior abortions, while 25% were performed on women with one previous abortion, and 13% on women with two or more prior abortions. The number of previous abortions, if any, was not reported for four women. Thirty-four percent of the abortions were performed on women who reported no prior live births, while 27% were performed on women with one prior live birth. Thirty-nine percent of the abortions that occurred in Tennessee were performed on women with two or more prior live births, and two abortions were performed on women whose number of prior live births was unknown.

Twenty-nine percent of Tennessee abortions occurred at six weeks of gestation or earlier while 42% occurred between seven and nine weeks of gestation. Twenty-two percent of the abortions were performed between 10 and 13 weeks of gestation, dropping to 4% between 14 and 15 weeks. Two percent occurred between 16 and 17 weeks of gestation, while 1% occurred between 18 and 20 weeks. Seven abortions were performed at 21 weeks of gestation or later, and two abortions were performed at unknown gestational ages.

In 2022, 43% of abortions performed in Tennessee were surgical, while 57% were drug-induced. No intrauterine instillation abortions were performed, while the number of hysterectomy/hysterotomy procedures was suppressed. Seven abortions were performed using unknown methods.

2022 Complications Data

While Tennessee did not report abortion totals on the state’s Department of Health website, they did release vague complications data.²  Tennessee’s complications data covers inpatient and outpatient encounters for abortion-related complications experienced by Tennessee and non-Tennessee residents who obtained abortions in and out of state. The state reported that in 2022, hospitals reported 34 cases of delayed or excessive hemorrhaging following an abortion, 27 cases of unspecified complications following an abortion, 19 cases of delayed or excessive hemorrhaging following a failed attempted abortion, and 32 failed abortions without complications.

2023 Guttmacher Data³

Guttmacher estimated the number of abortions that were obtained by Tennessee residents who traveled to other states to obtain an abortion. To see the number of abortions obtained by Tennessee women in various states according to Guttmacher, see the following table:

One potential reason that Tennessee women increasingly traveled to the states listed above is because they all have more permissive abortion laws compared to Tennessee and did so in 2023. Tennessee prohibits abortion while Illinois and California have viability limits that in practice permit abortion for nearly any reason at any time, Virginia has a similar 26-week limit, North Carolina limits abortion after 12 weeks, and both Georgia and South Carolina have heartbeat laws.

State Ranking

In CLI’s 2024 reevaluation of states’ abortion reporting requirements, Tennessee was tied for 36^th place. To improve its reporting, Tennessee could report its data in a timely manner so that the previous year’s data is not being released more than a year later.

1. National rates were calculated by the Guttmacher Institute. Tennessee rates were calculated by CLI using the following formula: (total number of abortions performed in Tennessee ÷ number of resident women ages 15-44 [based on most recent population estimates]) x 1,000. Rates may differ slightly from previous CLI articles due to revised population estimates. Population estimates were obtained from the CDC WONDER database. Estimates for 2005-2009 are intercensal estimates of the July 1 resident population. Estimates for 2010-2019 are Vintage 2020 postcensal estimates of the July 1 resident population. Estimates for 2020-2022 are Vintage 2022 postcensal estimates of the July 1 resident population. Estimates were produced by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health Statistics.
2. Statistics on abortion complications reported here represent a minimal number of deaths and complications.
3. The Guttmacher Institute notes that their monthly abortion totals by states are estimates and that each state’s estimate is within a range of uncertainty. Guttmacher also notes that their estimates do not reflect abortions obtained by women in pro-life states under shield laws in effect in pro-abortion states.
4. Tennessee total abortion and resident values for 2005-2020 are from the state’s reports, but the state’s total abortion and resident values for 2021 and 2022 are from the CDC’s 2021 and 2022 annual abortion surveillance reports.

LifeNews Note:  Mia Steupert, M.A. is a research associate for the Charlotte Lozier Institute, where this originally appeared.

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