CLEVELAND — Newly released data shows Ohio saw a 15% decline in abortions in 2022 compared to the year before.
The report, published by the Ohio Department of Health, details how many abortions were performed in the state and breaks them down into categories, including by zip code, age, race and ethnicity, marital status, education level, how far along in the pregnancy, and more.
According to the report, 66.5% of the 18,488 abortions performed in the state in 2022 occurred before nine weeks into the pregnancy, while 342 abortions (representing 1.9%) occurred at least 19 weeks into a pregnancy.
The number of abortions in Ohio in 2022 marks the fewest performed since the state began tracking the data in 1976.
That decline comes after Roe v Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June of last year. Ohio Republican lawmakers had passed a six-week abortion ban in 2019, which had no rape or incest exceptions. This law was blocked by a federal judge a few months later but was reinstated mere hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Pro-abortion rights groups sued, and months later, a state judge indefinitely blocked the law from going into place, citing infringement of privacy. This case has been sitting in the high court for half a year now and had a hearing on September 27.
The data shows only 1,967 abortions occurred between June 24 and September 14, when the law was in effect. Of those, only 20 abortions occurred after being deemed a medical emergency.
News 5 has been covering the abortion fight in Ohio extensively. Click or tap here to learn more.
It’s not clear how many Ohioians traveled out of state during the ban. However, last year, Michigan saw a 65% increase in abortions performed by those coming from out of state, going from 1,665 procedures performed in 2021 to 2,761 in 2022. It's not clear which state those individuals came from.
Nearby Pennsylvania hasn’t released its 2022 statistics yet.
Remember the disputed-then-confirmed 10-year-old Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana after she was raped? She makes up one of the 611 individuals from Ohio in 2022 who made the trip across state lines into Indiana. In 2021, that number was only 40.
Sri Thakkilapati runs Preterm, an independent nonprofit abortion provider clinic in Cleveland.
"Many of the people we talked with after the injunction told us they had gone out of state," she said. "We saw a really sharp decline in the patients we were able to see."
Thakkilapati told News 5 Preterm saw less than half their usual number of patients in July, August and half of September of last year, when the six-week ban was still in effect. In a normal year, Thakkilapati said Preterm handles about 5,000 patients.
After initially being turned away because of the ban, Thakkilapati said some individuals were still able to get an abortion when the ban was put on hold, but not all of them.
"We want people to know some of those numbers, the decline in abortion, are people who were forced to give birth," the Preterm interim executive director said.
The abortion ban – known as the Human Rights and Heartbeat Protection Act, was a short-lived victory for Kate Makra, who serves as executive director for Cleveland Right to Life and vice president at Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio, given the state still performed thousands of abortions after the injunction.
"That’s still too many," Makra said. "It was only in effect for a few short months in 2022. Here in my heart, I still believe Ohio is a pro-life state."
As she traverses the state ahead of the Nov. 7 election, News 5 caught up with Makra to go through the numbers in Summit County, a county whose residents represent one out of every six abortions in the state.
"If you put Cuyahoga and Summit [counties] together, you have about 47% of all abortions in the state," Makra pointed out when referencing the 2021 numbers. "It’s a travesty. It’s genocide. We want to focus on those folks who are undecided and show them how dangerous this amendment is."
To view the full report and see a complete breakdown of the data, click here.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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