TOPEKA — The number of abortions performed in Kansas during 2024 surpassed 19,000 for the second consecutive year in wake of judicial and political decisions in other states restricting access to the medical procedure.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported clinics and hospitals in Kansas conducted a record 19,811 abortions in 2024, up from 19,467 in 2023, 12,319 in 2022 and 7,849 in 2021. Of the 2024 total, 4,763 were provided to residents of Kansas. Demand for abortion among Kansans increased 9.3% from 4,356 in 2023 and was above the 3,844 reported in 2022 and 3,937 in 2021.
In 2024, 15,048 abortions in Kansas were provided to out-of-state residents. That was a slight decline from the 15,111 nonresident abortions in 2023 and a significant increase from 8,475 in 2022 and 3,912 in 2021 among people living outside Kansas.
Three-fourths of abortions in Kansas the past two years were for patients residing in other states, primarily Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Here was a state-by-state breakdown in terms of Kansas abortions in 2024 for nonresidents: Texas, 6,736; Missouri, 3,760; Oklahoma, 3,141; Arkansas, 851; Louisiana, 206; and Nebraska, 138.
In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide for nearly 50 years. Reversing that precedent returned authority to prohibit or regulate the procedure to individual states.
The Kansas Supreme Court had issued a decision in 2019 that found the Kansas Constitution guaranteed individuals bodily autonomy in health care decisions, including a woman’s right to end a pregnancy. The state court’s decision preserved abortion rights in Kansas after the U.S. Supreme Court severed federal constitutional protections.
In Missouri, abortion was legal only in cases of medical emergency from 2022 to 2024. However, Missouri voters in 2024 approved a constitutional amendment restoring broader reproductive freedoms. Other states in the Midwest responded to the U.S. Supreme Court by imposing bans on abortion, including Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Oklahoma has allowed abortions only to preserve the life of a pregnant person. Nebraska enforces a 12-week abortion ban.
Mackenzie Ayers, a spokeswoman for the anti-abortion organization Kansans for Life, said the state health department should have more promptly released information on 2024 abortions in Kansas. The state’s latest report was posted online at the end of December 2025 as part of a larger annual summary of vital statistics on Kansas.
“By waiting until the final hours of the year to release Kansas’ 2024 abortion statistics, Gov. Laura Kelly has made it clear she hoped these numbers would go unnoticed,” Ayers said.
Ayers said Kansans for Life believed young females were obtaining abortions in Kansas without parental consent. She said the organization would be “pursuing every legal option to restore some form of informed consent protections for women in 2026 and continue to sound the alarms about parental consent laws being potentially ignored.”
Janet Stanek, secretary of the state Department of Health and Environment, said the latest annual report provided an overview of information on the health status of Kansans.
“Public health statistics are essential to governmental agencies, businesses, industries and citizens for effective health policy decisions and program planning. KDHE is committed to ensuring accessibility,” Stanek’s report said.
KDHE’s report said 85.8% of all abortions performed in the state during 2024 were for unmarried women. KDHE said 77.1% of Kansas resident abortions in 2024 occurred prior to nine weeks of gestational age. Nearly 93% were prior to the 13th week of gestation and 2.8% came after 16 weeks gestation, the state health department said.
KDHE said there 140.3 abortions per 1,000 live births among Kansas residents in 2024. That was 9.6% higher than the ratio of 128 abortions per 1,000 live births in 2023.
The highest abortion ratio among Kansans residents on 2024 was for females 15 to 19 years of age, who had a rate of 341.9 abortions for every 1,000 live births. The lowest ratio — 80.4 abortions per 1,000 births — was for women 30 to 34 years of age, KDHE said. There was variation among Black, white and Hispanic women. The ratios: white non-Hispanics, 85 abortions per 1,000 live births; Black non-Hispanics, 402 abortions per 1,000 births; and Hispanics, 211.6 abortions per 1,000 births.
During 2024, KDHE said, there were 33,956 live births to residents of Kansas for a rate of 11.4 per 1,000 people. The agency said that was the lowest Kansas birth rate since 1912. The rate in 2024 represented a decline of 0.2% from 34,041 births in 2023. Here was the age breakdown of these Kansas mothers: under age 20, 4.5%; 20 to 29 years of age, 51.2%; 30 to 39 year of age, 41.5%; and aged 40 and over, 2.8%;
KDHE reported Kansas residents had 2,656 low-birth-weight infants, representing 7.8% of total births, in 2024. There were 197 infant deaths among Kansas residents, an increase of 8.2% from 182 deaths in 2023.
