WASHINGTON (Life News) – In a year that abortion businesses attempted to expand in America, the actual number of abortion facilities decreased by 27 clinics over 2016 totals.
Closures far outpaced newly opened abortion facilities in 2017. In all, 49 abortion facilities — 35 surgical and 14 medication only clinics — closed or halted abortion services. Only eight new surgical abortion facilities were opened, along with eleven new medication abortion facilities.
There was also some movement between categories. Fourteen surgical abortion facilities now only conduct medication abortions, while five medication abortion facilities added surgical abortions.
These encouraging statistics and more were verified through an annual survey of abortion facilities conducted by Operation Rescue staff, this year with the assistance of Abortion Free New Mexico.
By the Numbers
In 2017, there were 704 abortion facilities remaining in the U.S. Of these, 490 offer surgical abortions, often along with medication abortions. There are 214 facilities that offer only medication abortions.
Forty-five percent of all states had at least one abortion facility that closed or halted all abortion services this year.
Surgical abortion clinics decreased in number by 26% since 2009, the first year Operation Rescue began keeping records. Overall, there has been a 17% decrease in the total number of abortion facilities in America since 2009.
Since 1991, when there were 2,176 active surgical abortion facilities, only 23% of that number of surgical clinics are operating today.
Abortion facilities that offer only abortion-inducing drugs, also known by pro-life activists as “pill mills,” held steady at the same number as in 2016. Closures balanced evenly with new opens and clinics that dropped surgical abortions in favor of the abortion pills.
A handful of facilities that were closed by their states reopened in 2017.
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood reduced its number of abortion facilities by consolidating services into fewer locations. In 2016, Planned Parenthood operated 354 facilities that conducted abortions. Today, there are a total of 347 Planned Parenthood facilities that offer abortions. Of those, 160 are surgical abortion facilities, and 187 provide only medication abortions.