Pro-abortion propaganda always focuses on the hardest of hard cases when trying to justify abortion. Rape, incest and severe handicap are weaponised to argue for "choice" and the murder of unborn children. But a new report has revealed that such tragic cases make up less than 5% of all abortions.

Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) Senior Research Associate Tessa Cox has told Live Action News that the “official state data” the organization has reviewed “shows that the vast majority of abortions, more than 95%, are for elective or unspecified reasons.”

“Less than 5% of abortions are performed because the mother or unborn baby has a physical health condition or because the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest,” Cox added.

Lozier’s report noted that just 0.4 percent of abortions are done due to rape, and 0.3 percent are done due to a risk to the woman’s life or major bodily function.

For this report, Live Action News looked at the states which collect abortion data by reason, and found the following:

Alaska (2023) – The state does not seek reasons for abortion generally, but asks the question, “Was This Termination Elected Due to the Detection of a Congenital Anomaly?” and “Type of Congenital Anomaly.”

Less than 1 percent of abortions committed in Alaska in 2022 were for “congenital anomalies” and none were reported in 2023.

Arizona (2022)

• 8,963 abortions committed because “abortion is elective.”
• 90 for fetal health/medical considerations.
• 40 for domestic violence.
• 40 for sexual assault.
• 2,611 declined to specify a reason.

2,442 abortions were listed in the “other” reasons category. These included 1,581 who “didn’t want to have children,” 150 who felt “unprepared” or “not ready” for children, 70 called it a “timing issue,” 150 gave “financial reasons,” 324 referred to “personal/emotional health,” 10 said the “father doesn’t want child/lack of support” and more. Additional reasons can be seen in the image below. Out of the 340 listed for “maternal health,” 258 were not specific and were categorized as “unknown” reasons.

Florida (2023) – Over 71 percent of total reported abortions in Florida (84,052) were reported as “elective” in 2023. This is a slight decrease from the 74 percent committed for elective reasons in 2021.

Out of the 59,901 recorded in 2023, nearly 55,000 babies aborted for “elective reasons” in Florida were killed during the first trimester. In the second trimester, 5,109 were aborted for “elective reasons.”

Less than 0.3 percent were for “Life Endangering Physical Condition (251),” and less than 1 percent were for either “incest (11)” or “rape (107)” or “fetal anomaly (141)” combined.

Minnesota (2022) – 12,175 abortions were committed in the state that year. Due to women selecting more than one reason, the data shows 14,768 abortions by reason.

This means that less than 1 percent were for rape or incest, while nearly 50 percent were because the client did not “want” children. Nearly 26 percent refused to specify a reason.

In addition, slightly more than 11 percent involved the emotional (7 percent) or physical health (4 percent) of the mother.

In the “other” category, women listed education and career, relationships, and feeling unready for children as reasons for seeking abortions.

A previous Live Action News report found that less than 1 percent of total reported abortions in Minnesota (10,136) in 2021 were committed for rape (44) or incest (11), while 54 percent of abortions were committed because the mother “d[id] not want children at this time.”

Nebraska (2023) – The state recorded 2,325 abortions committed that year. Because women may have selected more than one reason, the total reasons listed came to 2,684.

According to the report, nearly 7 percent of women claimed “contraceptive failure” led to their abortions, while over 12 percent admitted that a failure to use contraception was their reason for abortion. In addition, 42 percent of women listed “socio-economic” reasons. Nearly 23 percent “declined to answer” or give a reason.

Less than 1 percent of abortions were committed due to “maternal life endangered,” “emergency situation,” or “fetal anomaly.” These reasons combined totaled less than 2 percent of these reasons given. Sexual assault (0.63 percent) and incest (0.07 percent) were also less than 1 percent of abortions.

South Dakota (2022) – The data showed that between 2018-2022, rape and incest accounted for between <1 percent up to as high as 3 percent of abortions in the state. Physical harm to the mother was the reason given by between 2 percent or as high as 3.6 percent of women seeking abortions.

The majority of abortions between 2018-2022 were committed because:

• Mother did not desire to have the child (ranging between 63.9 percent to as high as 70.4 percent).
• Mother could not afford the child (ranging between 46.4 percent to as high as 51.8 percent).
• Emotional health was unstable (ranging from 17 percent to as high as 23.4 percent).

The state reported zero abortions in 2023.

Utah (2021) – The state reported that “In 2021, there were nine choices for ‘Reasons for an abortion.’”

The reasons selected most often were socio-economic (1,474), elective (925), or contraception failure (447). These three reasons (2,846) together made up 96 percent of the 2,978 reasons for women living in Utah to have an abortion.

Abortions reported for rape made up less than half a percent, and none were reported for maternal life endangered.

Tragically, of the babies who were aborted at or after 21-weeks of gestation, nine were for “socio-economic reasons,” five for “fetal malformation,” and 24 were “not stated.”