In the first full year following Ohio’s passage of the reproductive rights amendment, Issue 1, the number of abortion procedures performed in the state declined. The year-to-year decrease was small but continues a broad downward trajectory in abortions since the mid-1990s.
In all, there were 21,829 induced abortions in Ohio in 2024, compared with 22,000 in 2023; the abortion rate per 1,000 residents declined from 8.7 to 8.4.
The vast majority of procedures continue to happen early in pregnancy. More than 64% involved a pregnancy of less than nine weeks, and another 23% involved pregnancies of 9-12 weeks.
Non-surgical abortions, using drugs like Misoprostol or Mifepristone, made up a little less than half the total.
Ohio’s new reproductive protections stand out among many of its neighbors, and that appears to be showing up in the data as well. For most of the last 10 years, out of state residents made up about 1,200 of those seeking abortions in Ohio in a given year. In 2023, even before Issue 1 passed, that figure jumped to more than 2,700, and in 2024 in climbed again to 3,113.
Supporters and opponents reactions
Despite passage of Issue 1, which guarantees Ohio officials can’t “burden, penalize, prohibit, interfere with, or discriminate” against an individual making their own reproductive decisions, abortion access remains a live issue.
In March, Ohio Right to Life filed a complaint with the Department of Health about a company offering reproductive care via telemedicine. The laws the company was supposedly violating had been put on hold by a judge more than a year prior.
This summer, two Planned Parenthood clinics closed following federal changes to Medicaid. Even after a judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s efforts, the clinics decided it was too risky to continue. Republican state lawmakers even filed a billdefining life at conception in a bid to circumvent Issue 1 and outlaw abortion and IVF treatment.
Abortion opponents welcomed the decline in the most recent report but promised to keep fighting.
“Given that Ohio has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the country and we have radical judges pushing this agenda, these numbers are encouraging,” Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Carrie Snyder said.
“We aren’t satisfied with the loss of any innocent pre-born child, and our efforts to protect them will continue,” she added.
Snyder highlighted “disturbing trends” like Black mothers making up a disproportionate amount of the state’s procedures and the continued rise in out-of-state abortion seekers.
“This is another reason why we have called on Governor (Mike) DeWine to sign an executive order prohibiting any Medicaid funds from going to abortion providers,” Snyder said. “Taxpayer dollars should not (be) used to support the practice of abortion in any way, and even more so on people not from the Buckeye State.”
Kellie Copeland from the organization Abortion Forward compared the current moment to the brief window in 2022 when Ohio’s 6-week abortion ban took effect — cutting off access to abortions before most mothers know they’re pregnant.
“For 82 days in 2022, Ohioans were forced to travel out of state for the abortion care they needed,” Copeland said. “Thankfully, those days are behind us, and abortion is protected in the Ohio Constitution.”
Still, she said her organization has work to do.
“People must be able to plan if, when, and how they start a family, and government should be ensuring they have access to education and resources to make that plan for themselves,” Copeland said. “Unfortunately, Trump, Congress, anti-abortion organizations, and their friends in the Ohio Legislature continue to do everything they can to impede access to reproductive healthcare.”
Copeland criticized lawmakers threatening Medicaid funding and leaving tens of thousands of Ohioans without access to medical services. She’s concerned about the number of out of state abortion seekers, too — but not for the same reasons as Snyder.
“I am glad that those people could come to Ohio for the care they needed,” Copeland said, “but they should have been able to get the care much closer to home.”
“No one should be forced to cross state lines for health care,” she insisted.
Originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal. Republished here with permission.