By Tessa Redmond
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (KT) – In March 2022, 474 lives were lost to abortion in Kentucky.
It is the highest monthly total reported since the Cabinet for Health and Family Services began publishing abortion data in 2017. Only two months have stepped over the threshold of 400 abortions during that period — July 2021 and December 2021 when there were 418 and 405 abortions, respectively.
EMW Women’s Surgical Center, one of two licensed abortion providers in Kentucky, performed 382 abortions in March — aborting an average of 14 babies each business day. The remaining 92 abortions were provided by Planned Parenthood in Louisville, the highest monthly total reported by that business this year.
Surgical and medical abortion procedures were neck and neck in March—239 pregnancies were terminated with pills and 235 fetuses were removed from the womb surgically via suction curettage or dilation and evacuation (D&E).
In March, more women had obtained at least one prior abortion than those who were aborting their first baby—defying trends in 2021 and 2020, when most women were seeking their first-ever abortion. Nearly 68% had previously given birth; 96 women had delivered three or more children prior to the March abortion.
An overwhelming majority of abortions (87.9%) were performed in the first trimester of pregnancy. There were only 57 second trimester abortions.
Approximately 10% of abortions happened at or after 15 weeks gestation in March—raising the 2022 total to 114 out of 1,212 abortions. Under new legislation, abortions at this point in pregnancy may soon be illegal in Kentucky. House Bill 3, a multi-faceted pro-life bill that includes a 15-week abortion ban, was challenged in court by the state’s abortion clinics last month and is temporarily enjoined by a federal judge. A decision in the lawsuit is expected by May 19.
All data related to abortions provided in Kentucky are made available to the public through the Open Records Act.
Friends of Life KY 