The count of abortion clinics in the United States has decreased over the past year, according to a report by the pro-life organization “Operation Rescue.”
The annual report, released on Tuesday, highlights that 29 clinics closed in 2024, while an additional 20 clinics “no longer see patients in person.” This organization identified 667 clinics operating in 2024, a slight decline from 670 in 2023.
The report notes, “This trend of abortion clinics abandoning the concept of meeting with patients in person emphasizes the difficulty abortion facilities are experiencing securing and retaining abortionists.” It also points to the growing reliance on mail-order chemical abortion pills, which have become more attractive to profit-driven abortion centers due to easier access and lower operational costs.
The report classified 14 states as “abortion free,” defined as states that provide legal protections for unborn life from conception to birth, “albeit with rare exceptions and always for the life of the mother.”
The states identified as “abortion free” are Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
Additionally, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and South Carolina were noted as having laws that protect unborn life starting at around six weeks of pregnancy when a heartbeat can typically be detected; however, they were not included in the “abortion-free” category.
These legislative changes followed the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,” which determined that abortion is not a constitutional right, thereby overturning the landmark 1973 decision in “Roe v. Wade.”
Operation Rescue President Troy Newman stated, “There is no doubt that abortion facilities are struggling to survive in this post-Roe environment.” He emphasized, “As we conduct our extensive investigations, we continue to see evidence that abortion clinics are facing challenges hiring and keeping abortionists.”
The decline in the number of abortion facilities is not a new trend; even before the Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned, the number of clinics had been falling significantly. There were 2,176 abortion clinics in the United States in 1991, but that number had dropped to 720 by 2021.
