INDIANAPOLIS — New data from the Indiana Department of Health shows more Hoosiers terminated their pregnancies in 2021 than any of the previous five years.
IDOH's terminated pregnancy report, which was released Thursday, shows 8,414 terminations were reported in 2021. That’s 658 more than during 2020.
Of those abortions, 7,949 (94.47%) were for Indiana residents, while 465 (5.53%) were for out-of-state residents.
Data shows 2021 saw the highest number of terminated pregnancies since 2018, when 8,037 were reported. In 2021, 98.76% of abortions took place when the pregnancy was at 13 weeks gestation or earlier. The age range for women receiving terminations in Indiana in 2021 was 12 to 55 years with the average age being 27, according to IDOH.
IDOH reports 74.13% of abortions happened in Marion County. Of the 465 people who traveled to Indiana for an abortion, most traveled from Kentucky.
On Thursday, a Kentucky judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking Kentucky's abortion bans. This includes the trigger law and six-week abortion ban.
The order is in effect until lawyers return to the courtroom next week to argue for or against an injunction.
IDOH says due to where clinics and hospitals are located, abortions were performed in just seven of Indiana's 92 counties.
No maternal deaths were reported because of a terminated pregnancy.
The special session called by Governor Eric Holcomb for July has been shifted slightlyfollowing the Supreme Court's overturn of Roe vs. Wade.
Originally, lawmakers were expected to convene at the statehouse beginning on July 6 to discuss inflation relief, but now they are not expected to appear in person until July 25 as they plan to also discuss abortion legislation.
RELATED: Here's what overturning Roe v. Wade's abortion protections means for Indiana
While the Department of Health doesn't track the reasons why a person might seek an abortion, researchers at Indiana University say many of them are for common reasons.
"People not being ready to parent, people not feeling they are financially, emotionally or prepared to parent are the common reasons at this point," Kristen Jozkowski, a professor of Sexual Health at IU, said.
