Pro-life advocates sound alarm as late-term abortions rise in some blue states

Women’s rights advocates have dismissed concerns about late-term abortion as a right-wing talking point, but pro-lifers are flagging data showing the allegedly spurious phenomenon is surging in blue states.

Figures released by the Oregon Health Authority show that the number of abortions performed after 23 weeks gestation, or after fetal viability, soared from 85 in 2022 to 225 in 2023, a one-year jump of 165%.

Overall abortions during that period rose in 2023 to 10,075, an increase of 16.2% and the highest state total since 2009.

“The dramatic increase in late-term abortions in Oregon is devastating and horrific,” said Lois Anderson, Oregon Right to Life executive director. “At 23 weeks gestation and beyond, the unborn human being is well developed … She can feel pain, and with help, she can survive outside the womb.”

Oregon isn’t alone. In Colorado, the number of abortions performed after 28 weeks gestation rose from 118 in 2022 to 137 in 2023, a one-year increase of 16%, according to Colorado Department of Health and Environment data analyzed by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute.

Overall abortions in Colorado went from 14,154 in 2022 to 14,691 in 2023, a year-to-year increase of 3.8% and the highest total recorded since 1985, although the pro-choice Guttmacher Institute estimated the total at 25,000 in its Monthly Abortion Provision Study.

The Lozier analysis released earlier this month attributed the discrepancy to at-home procedures conducted using abortion pills.

“Colorado does not limit abortion at any gestational age, so it is possible that Guttmacher’s count for Colorado’s 2023 total included mail-order abortions prescribed by doctors in the United States and mailed into Colorado,” said the institute.

In Michigan, total abortions rose by 3.7% from 30,120 in 2022 to 31,241 in 2023. Post-viability abortions, or those performed after 21 weeks gestation, increased 18%, according to state Department of Health and Human Services data.

The number of abortions has dropped dramatically in red states that have tightened their laws since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, but the Lozier Institute flagged increases in states with liberal abortion laws.

“As of November 2024, 21 states had released 2023 abortion statistics, nine of which showed an increase in abortions from 2022,” said the institute.

The rise may well be due to so-called abortion tourism as women from states with stricter laws seek procedures in more abortion-friendly states. In Oregon, for example, 16% of abortions were performed on non-resident women, an increase of 60% from 2022.

But why the increase in post-viability procedures? Oregon state Sen. Suzanne Weber said she worries that it could be related to the Democratic Party’s emphasis on abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

“We were struck with it every single day on TV by the candidates. They were pushing it so hard. It was like a single-issue campaign,” said the Republican Weber.

Another possibility is the increase in human trafficking as cartels and gangs flow into the country from the porous southern border. A 2014 study by the Beazley Institute found that 66 formerly trafficked women had undergone 114 abortions among them.

“We have a lot of human trafficking going on in this state,” said Ms. Weber. “We have the I-5 freeway that runs right through here and connects with southern Oregon, where they were especially growing a lot of illegal marijuana, and then we have all of the drugs from Mexico that come right up through that corridor. And human trafficking goes right along with that.”

Planned Parenthood has blasted late-term abortion as a “completely made-up phrase” and “pure anti-abortion propaganda,” but also said that red-state restrictions can result in delays for women seeking to terminate their pregnancies.

“Abortion bans make people travel out of state to get care and cause a backlog of patients at health centers, forcing people to delay their abortions,” said Planned Parenthood in an October 2022 post. “And other restrictions — like waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds, parental notification laws, and laws prohibiting health insurance or Medicaid from covering abortion care — create even more barriers that lead to later abortions.”

Kelsey Pritchard, director of state public affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said one problem is that state data typically doesn’t explain why women undergo abortions after fetal viability, when a baby can survive outside the womb.

“Was it for a fetal anomaly diagnosis? Was it for the life-of-the-mother situation?” she asked. “That’s a big problem, that we don’t know and that states don’t capture that data most of the time.”

She referred to research by late-term abortion specialist Warren Hern showing that only about a fifth of procedures performed at his Colorado clinic were done in cases of fetal abnormalities.

“Guttmacher has even said that many of those abortions are elective,” Ms. Pritchard said. “I think we have reason to be concerned that these late-term abortions are happening for elective reasons.”

Four states — California, Maryland, New Hampshire and North Dakota — don’t report abortion data to the federal government, and Michigan will soon join their ranks.

The Democrat-led state Legislature voted last year to stop requiring abortion clinics to report their numbers, citing privacy concerns, despite objections from Republicans and pro-life groups.

The result is that Michigan will not collect abortion data in 2024 for the first time in 45 years.

“I think we can all agree that the data is necessary, but they of course often try to leave people in the dark,” Ms. Pritchard said. “And the abortion industry doesn’t want people to know.”