Massachusetts saw a 5.7 percent increase in abortions in 2022 from the previous year.
There were 17,757 abortions in Massachusetts in 2022 — nearly 1,000 more abortions than there were in 2021 (16,795 abortions), according to data from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health obtained by NewBostonPost.
Although the Bay State does not have complete information on the residency of the women who had these abortions, women from out of state had at least 920 abortions in Massachusetts, according to state data.
About 91 percent of all abortions in Massachusetts in 2022 occurred during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, according to the data — 12,719 during the first eight weeks, and 3,447 during weeks nine through 12.
The uptick in abortions in Massachusetts came the same year that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey with its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022.
While ruling on a 2018 Mississippi law that would have barred abortions after 15 weeks, the court determined that the United States Constitution does not include a right to abortion. Since then, states have been free to decide if abortion is legal or illegal in the state. Fifteen states have banned abortion; seven have put first-trimester gestational limits on abortion; four states have enacted abortion bans that courts have blocked.
The all-time low in abortions in the Bay State since abortion became legal in Massachusetts came in 2020 when 16,452 abortions occurred.
Even so, the number of abortions in the Bay State in 2022 was lower than it was in 2019 (18,593), which was before the start of the coronavirus pandemic and during the time when abortion was legal in all 50 states.
Chemical abortions were the most common abortion method in the Bay State; they accounted for 52.2 percent (9,276 out of 17,757) of the abortions that happened in the state last year.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the Commonwealth. It performed 9,199 of the state’s 17,757 abortions (51.8 percent) — more than all of the other abortion clinics and hospitals combined.
Among hospitals in the state, Boston Medical Center performed the most abortions in 2022 — 1,085. Second was Brigham & Women’s Hospital, at 591. Third was Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, at 515. All three are in the city of Boston.
It’s unclear how many abortions have taken place in the Commonwealth so far in 2023. State public health officials typically don’t provide the number of abortions for a particular year until the fall of the following year.
A link to the complete abortion data the Massachusetts Department of Public Health provided NewBostonPost is available below:
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(Courtesy of Wikimedia) 
