Abortions in Florida declined precipitously in 2024 compared to the past few years, state data compiled by the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) shows.
A total of 60,755 unborn babies were aborted in Florida last year, including 3,754 whose mothers were from out of state, according to the AHCA’s 2024 “By County” report. Total abortions in 2024 reflect a 28-percent decrease from 2023, when 84,052 unborn babies were killed in abortions. Out-of-state abortions also decreased by 51 percent in 2024, down from 7,736 in 2023.
Abortion clinics and physicians who perform abortions in other medical settings are required by state law to provide monthly reports to AHCA. The AHCA reports, therefore, do not include abortions performed outside of the formal health system, meaning the total number of abortions that occurred in Florida could be much higher.
Abortion pill networks operating in states with shield laws and internationally have been exponentially more active since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue of abortion back to individual states in June of 2022. Medication abortions notably accounted for 63 percent of all abortions in the United States in 2023, up from 53 percent in 2020, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.
The sharp decline in recorded abortions in 2024 could likely be attributed to the state’s six-week abortion restriction, which went into effect on May 1. Florida’s six-week restriction includes exceptions for rape, incest, and human trafficking up to 15 weeks of pregnancy; preserving the life of the mother; or a fatal fetal abnormality in a pregnancy that has not entered the third trimester.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed the six-week Heartbeat Bill in April 2023, but it could not go into effect until the state Supreme Court weighed in on Florida’s previous 15-week abortion limit. The 15-week limit went into effect in July of 2022 after the Dobbs decision. and was allowed to remain in place during litigation, replacing the state’s pre-Dobbs law allowing abortions up to the third trimester of pregnancy.
Florida appeared to become an “abortion-destination state” while the 15-week restriction was in effect because every surrounding state in the south passed near-total abortion limits or six-week restrictions. Data from AHCA confirms that Florida saw thousands more women coming from out of state for abortions in 2023 and 2022 compared to previous years, as well as more abortions overall and more second trimester abortions. In 2022, 6,708 abortions were performed on out-of-state patients, up from 4,873 in 2021 and 3,988 in 2020.
The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute released data that found that one of every three abortions in the South, and one in 12 across the United States, occurred in Florida in 2023. Guttmacher also reported a higher number of women coming from out of state to get abortions in Florida, putting the figure at more than 9,000.
The ACHA data includes information about trimester and why the woman decided to have an abortion. In 2024, there were 57,655 first trimester abortions and and 3,097 second trimester abortions. There were three babies aborted in the third trimester, one for a serious genetic defect, and two for fatal fetal abnormalities, state data shows.
The recorded reason for the majority of first trimester (42,613) and second trimester abortions (2,014) in Florida is listed as “elective.” The second highest reason is “due to social and economic reasons,” with 12,679 babies aborted in the first trimester and 594 aborted in the second trimester for those reasons.
Nearly 1,300 abortions were performed due to the emotional or psychological health of the mother; 825 were for the mother’s non-life-threatening health reasons; 303 were due to fetal genetic defects, deformities, or abnormalities; and 121 were due to a mother’s life-endangering physical condition, data shows.
Approximately 202 abortions were performed due to fatal fetal abnormality, including 16 in the first trimester and 184 in the second trimester.
Seven abortions were due to incest, two were for a victim of human trafficking, and 100 abortion were for rape, with 85 percent in the first trimester and 15 in the second trimester, according to the state report.
The AHCA also reports infants born alive in abortions, although the state report does not clarify whether the babies survived or ultimately perished.
In 2024, 4 babies were born alive in abortions, down from 14 in 2023 and 16 in 2022. In 2021, the state reported 4 babies born alive in abortions, 7 in 2020, and 3 in 2019.
Florida’s six-week restriction restriction faced another challenge in 2024, when pro-abortion activists tried to use a ballot measure called Amendment 4 to change the state constitution to enshrine the right to abortions throughout pregnancy with some exceptions. The amendment would have undone the state’s current six-week restriction and, once again, made it an abortion destination for surrounding states.
Florida was one of ten states in November of 2024 that had an abortion measure on the ballot. However, Florida became the first state to reject a pro-abortion amendment since the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Overall, three of the ten states that had abortion on the ballot in November rejected the amendments, including Florida, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
In Florida, proposed constitutional amendments must achieve 60 percent support to pass. Amendment 4 fell just short of passage, with 57 percent voting in support and 43 percent voting against. Many other states only require a simple majority for constitutional amendments — a lower threshold, which has allowed abortion measures to pass in more conservative states like Missouri.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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