The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been monitoring abortion developments for many years, however this 12 months’s report — together with a number of the earliest federal knowledge reflecting the impact of serious modifications to abortion entry nationwide – has been pushed again till spring amid turmoil on the federal agency.
Each 12 months, states and jurisdictions voluntarily report knowledge that they’ve collected to the CDC for a nationwide evaluation, a course of that has been occurring in some type since 1969. The CDC compiles that data right into a report that’s usually revealed in late November.
The US Department of Health and Human Services blames former CDC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Debra Houry for the delay of this 12 months’s abortion surveillance report, saying in an announcement that Houry “directed staff to return state-submitted abortion data rather than analyze it.”
Houry denies this declare, as a substitute saying that main layoffs at HHS this 12 months left the CDC with out the workers it wanted to do the work.
After thousands of people were laid off from HHS in April, Houry says, she helped lead a transition administration crew that developed agency-wide approaches to handle the consequences of the layoffs, together with coordinated communication. At that point, she says, the agency had additionally carried out a coverage by which all exterior communication — together with to companions at state and native well being departments — needed to be authorised by a communications workplace led by politically appointed workers through the preliminary weeks after the layoffs.
“The policy that was proposed by the agency to us — that we signed off on — was that there’s no funding, no staff, and not statutorily required [so] the program can’t do the work,” she instructed NCS. “The politicals were all aware, back in April, that this was one of the programs that couldn’t continue, along with many others.”
An HHS official instructed NCS that Houry didn’t observe this strategy of checking with political appointees or different agency management earlier than shutting down the abortion surveillance knowledge undertaking, however HHS didn’t reply to a request for particulars about how or when it heard concerning the supposed motion by Houry.
Houry was one among a number of high-level veteran agency officers who resigned in protest in August after CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez was fired simply weeks after she had been sworn in to the place. The exiting leaders described censorship, communication failures and the weaponization of public well being by HHS in resignation letters, social media posts and statements from attorneys.
The delayed CDC abortion surveillance report is anticipated to incorporate knowledge via 2023, the primary full 12 months after the US Supreme Court Dobbs choice that revoked the federal proper to an abortion.
Researchers exterior the federal authorities have additionally began monitoring abortion developments within the US up to now few years, and a brand new #WeCount report sponsored by the Society for Family Planning exhibits that the variety of abortions offered within the US has continued to extend post-Dobbs.
There have been a median of almost 99,000 abortions every month within the first half of 2025, up about 4% from the month-to-month common final 12 months, based on the report, which was revealed Tuesday.
Most abortions within the US nonetheless occur in particular person, however the newest #WeCount knowledge exhibits that remedy abortions offered via telehealth account for the entire enhance to this point this 12 months.
In the primary half of 2025, 27% of all abortions inside the US well being care system have been offered through telehealth, up from lower than 10% within the first half of 2023.
More than half of the telehealth abortions within the US at the moment are offered below defend legal guidelines, which supply some authorized protections for suppliers who observe in some states the place abortion stays authorized to prescribe remedy abortion medicine through telehealth to folks dwelling in states with bans or restrictions. In June, almost 15,000 abortions have been offered below defend legal guidelines within the US, #WeCount knowledge exhibits.
“Abortion bans don’t stop people from needing and pursuing essential abortion care,” Dr. Alison Norris, co-chair of the #WeCount analysis undertaking and professor at The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health, stated in an announcement. “Telehealth is helping people in states with bans to access abortion care – and yet it isn’t the answer for everyone. Abortion bans are causing harm, and all too often, your access to healthcare depends on where you live and how much money you have.”
Although abortion surveillance knowledge from the CDC is a bit older than knowledge reported by #WeCount and different analysis organizations just like the Guttmacher Institute, consultants say it nonetheless provides crucial items to the general image.
“I thought the CDC data set was helpful because it came from health departments, it was anonymized, and it used the same questions year after year, so it’s able to track trends over a long period of time,” Houry stated.
But layoffs left the division with out the subject-matter consultants who perceive the nuances of the undertaking.
“It’s really hard to replace people,” she stated. “This is the thing that’s happening for any programs that don’t have funding or staff, because I don’t know how you do work if you don’t have funding or staff.”