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More than half of American women obtaining abortions are in their 20s.[32] Women aged 20–24 have the highest abortion rate of any age-group (40 abortions per 1,000 women).

Six in 10 American women having an abortion already have a child, and more than three in 10 already have two or more children.[32]

More than seven in 10 U.S. women obtaining an abortion report a religious affiliation (37% protestant, 28% Catholic and 7% other), and 25% attend religious services at least once a month.[38] The abortion rate for protestant women is 15 per 1,000 women, while Catholic women have a slightly higher rate, 22 per 1,000.[32]

No racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of women having abortions: 36% are non-Hispanic white, 30% are non-Hispanic black, 25% are Hispanic and 9% are women of other races.[32]

Non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women have higher rates of abortion (40 and 29 per 1,000 women aged 15–44, respectively) than non-Hispanic white women do (12 per 1,000).[32] The higher rates reflect the fact that black and Hispanic women have high unintended pregnancy rates (91 and 82 per 1,000 women, respectively), compared with non-Hispanic white women (36 per 1,000 women).[26]

Women with family incomes below the federal poverty level ($18,530 for a family of three) account for more than 40% of all abortions.[32] They also have one of the country’s highest abortion rates (52 per 1,000 women). In contrast, higher-income women (with family incomes at or above 200% of the poverty line) have a rate of nine abortions per 1,000, which is about half the national rate.

Most women identify multiple reasons for having an abortion: Three-fourths cite concerns for or responsibility to other individuals, including children; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.[40] The reasons U.S. women give for having an abortion reflect their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life.

In 2008, the abortion rate was highest in the Northeast (27 abortions per 1,000 women), followed by the West, the South and the Midwest (22, 18 and 14 per 1,000, respectively).[31]

In the United States, only about one in 10 abortions occur in the second trimester. More than nine in 10 occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and more than six in 10 occur in the first eight weeks.[37] The availability of medication abortion and new techniques that allow surgical abortions to be performed earlier in pregnancy are likely to reinforce the trend toward earlier abortions.