How many rape that end in pregnancy
Executive summary
Published research and federal public-health summaries place the number of pregnancies that result from rape on a spectrum: a long‑standing annual estimate of roughly 32,000 pregnancies in the United States comes from a national study that calculated a 5.0% pregnancy rate per rape (adult victims) [1] [2], while lifetime prevalence figures assert that millions of U.S. women have ever become pregnant following rape or sexual coercion—estimates range from "over three million" to as many as 4.8% of women (about 5.9 million) when sexual coercion is included—reflecting different definitions and methods [3] [4].
1. Annual count from a foundational national study
A frequently cited estimate comes from a large U.S. probability sample published in the 1990s that calculated a rape‑related pregnancy rate of 5.0% per rape among reproductive‑age victims and extrapolated roughly 32,101 rape‑related pregnancies each year among adult women [1] [5], a figure that has been used in policy and academic discussions ever since [2].
2. Lifetime prevalence: millions of women affected
Broader lifetime surveys and public‑health summaries produce much larger cumulative tallies: the CDC reports that "one in 20 women" in the United States have experienced a pregnancy from rape, sexual coercion, or both during their lifetimes, and states that "over three million" women have experienced pregnancy resulting from rape during their lifetimes [3], while a peer‑reviewed analysis including sexual coercion estimated 4.8%—about 5.9 million U.S. women—have ever become pregnant because of rape, sexual coercion, or both [4].
3. Recent, policy‑focused tallies during the post‑Roe era
Researchers have also produced period‑specific estimates to quantify how many rape‑caused pregnancies occurred in states that enacted total abortion bans after Dobbs; a JAMA Internal Medicine analysis estimated more than 64,000 pregnancies from rape occurred in the 14 states with near‑total bans between July 1, 2022, and January 1, 2024, a calculation based on national survey adjustments and state‑level crime data [6] [7].
4. What happens after a rape‑related pregnancy: outcomes and variation
Outcomes for pregnancies resulting from rape differ across studies and contexts: one large U.S. study found that among pregnancies resulting from rape, about half were aborted, 12% miscarried, and 38% were carried to term and either placed for adoption or raised—figures that vary internationally and by population, with higher carry‑to‑term percentages reported in settings where abortion access is restricted [8] [2].
5. Why these numbers diverge: definitions, reporting and methods
Estimates diverge because studies use different definitions (rape only versus rape plus sexual coercion), different time windows (annual incidence versus lifetime prevalence), and different data sources and corrections for underreporting—the 1996 national study itself warns that many rapes go unreported and many victims do not seek medical care, which clouds prevalence figures [2], while more recent analyses attempt to adjust for unreported crimes using survey and crime‑report partitions [6].
6. Bottom line: a range, not a single number
A defensible synthesis is that in the United States roughly 30,000–35,000 pregnancies per year have been estimated to result directly from rape based on older national incidence work [1] [5], while cumulative lifetime counts put the number of women ever pregnant from rape in the millions—CDC and peer‑reviewed estimates span "over three million" to roughly 5.9 million when sexual coercion is included—additionally, focused analyses place more than 64,000 rape‑caused pregnancies in a recent 18‑month period in states with abortion bans, underscoring how methodology and policy context shape any numeric answer [3] [4] [6].