Which state health departments publish downloadable 2024 abortion microdata and where are their data portals?
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Executive summary
A systematic read of the provided reporting shows that few state health agencies are explicitly documented in these sources as publishing downloadable, person- or case-level 2024 abortion microdata; Texas is the clearest example with multiple labeled 2024 Excel files available for download [1]. Several national repositories and surveys compile or estimate 2024 abortion counts—Guttmacher’s Monthly Abortion Provision Study and public-use datasets and CDC surveillance—but those sources do not replace state-run downloadable microdata portals and, in the material provided, do not document which other states publish downloadable 2024 microdata [2] [3] [4].
1. Texas: a confirmed case of downloadable 2024 files and where to find them
Texas Health and Human Services maintains a page titled “Texas Induced Terminations of Pregnancy Statistics” that explicitly lists downloadable 2024 Excel files, including “2024 Selected Characteristics of Induced Terminations of Pregnancy” and “2024 Complications of Induced Terminations of Pregnancy (Excel),” indicating the agency publishes 2024 abortion data in spreadsheet format for public access [1]. The agency’s data portal URL is cited in the reporting as the source page for these files [1].
2. Washington state: interactive dashboards, published data but unclear microdata downloadability
Washington State Department of Health publishes abortion and pregnancy data via interactive dashboards that present county- and ACH‑level counts and rates, and the department explicitly documents induced terminations of pregnancy as a surveillance activity [5]. The provided reporting describes dashboards and the types of abortion statistics shown but does not explicitly state that Washington offers downloadable 2024 microdata files for researchers to download in a single Excel/CSV microdataset, so the presence of downloadable 2024 microdata on Washington’s portal cannot be confirmed from these sources alone [5].
3. National compilations and surveillance do not substitute for state microdata portals
National sources such as the CDC’s Abortion Surveillance and agencies like the Guttmacher Institute publish aggregate tables, annual reports, and modeled or survey-based estimates—including Guttmacher’s national and state estimates for 2024 and public-use datasets covering earlier years—but CDC surveillance depends on voluntary, aggregate reports from state agencies and the documents provided do not indicate CDC or Guttmacher supply downloadable state microdata files for 2024 at the person- or case-level [2] [3] [4] [6]. The CDC’s FAQs emphasize that states voluntarily report aggregate data to CDC and that CDC prepares surveillance reports from those aggregates, underscoring that CDC is not a repository of state microdata [4].
4. Data gaps, privacy concerns and why many states may not expose microdata
Reporting flags policy and privacy dynamics that shape what states publish: some states have increased abortion reporting requirements since 2022, prompting experts to warn that richer state data can create privacy and legal risks for patients, which may dissuade agencies from releasing line‑level microdata publicly [7]. The Nebraska Examiner notes heightened collection and potential law‑enforcement uses of detailed data in some jurisdictions, a political and legal pressure that helps explain why downloadable microdata remain uncommon and why state portals often present only aggregate counts or dashboards rather than raw case-level files [7].
5. What can be said with confidence and what remains unknown
From the supplied materials, Texas is the only state explicitly documented as publishing labeled 2024 abortion Excel files on a state health agency site [1]. Washington publishes interactive dashboards with detailed breakdowns, but the sources do not confirm downloadable 2024 microdata [5]. National entities like Guttmacher and CDC provide comprehensive aggregated estimates and public-use datasets for earlier years, but they do not, in the provided reporting, serve as sources for state-level downloadable 2024 microdata files [2] [3] [4]. Other states may publish downloadable 2024 microdata on their health department portals, but that is not documented in the reporting supplied here; further direct review of individual state health department websites would be required to compile a comprehensive list.