Facts

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People of all genders need access to abortion. Trans and non-binary people often face not only the effects of anti-abortion policies, but also are consistently left out of conversations about abortion access.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, one out of four people that identify as women in the United States will have an abortion by the age of 45.

Abortion, when performed properly, is one of the safest medical procedures. Researchers have found that abortion is safer than wisdom teeth removal.

In the United States, 92.7% of all abortions take place in the first 13 weeks of pregnancy; four-fifths in the first 9 weeks of pregnancy.

Medication (with mifepristone and misoprostol) abortion accounts for about 53% of all abortions in the United States and is provided up to 10 weeks of gestation.

Surgical abortions take around 15 minutes to perform and are still one of the most common abortion procedures in the U.S.

Worldwide, there are 73 million abortions performed yearly, with some 45% of those abortions being unsafe. Abortion is safer where it is legal generally and less safe where it is more legally restricted and in countries with extreme poverty.

Abortion rates are similar in countries where it is broadly legal or where it is highly restricted. Countries that restrict abortion also tend to restrict access to contraceptives, which increases the abortion rate.

An estimated 75,000 people yearly worldwide die needlessly from botched abortions because of lack of access to safe abortions, frequently due to restrictive laws and poverty. A blanket ban of abortion would lead to a 21% increase of pregnancy-related deaths in a given country.

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/ss/ss7009a1.htm
https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2022/02/medication-abortion-now-accounts-more-half-all-us-abortions

https://www.uclahealth.org/medical-services/obgyn/family-planning/patient-resources/surgical-abortion-first-trimester

https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/induced-abortion-worldwide

https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/how-many-women-die-from-unsafe-abortions/

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