Fact check: What percentage of abortions are attributed to rape or incest in the US as of 2025?

1. Why the official count is missing—and why that matters

There is no nationally standardized metric that captures abortions explicitly attributed to rape or incest in 2025, and major fact-summaries confirm the absence of a single up‑to‑date percentage. Recent U.S. policy and reporting documents reviewed in mid‑2025 note that abortion statistics rarely parse out the legal or personal reasons for seeking care at a national level, and several contemporary overviews explicitly state no specific percentage is available ^{[1] [3]}. This gap matters because policymakers and courts sometimes cite such figures when debating exceptions, yet the data infrastructure to produce a timely national percentage is not in place ^[4].

2. Clinic studies show rape-related abortions are uncommon in samples

Clinic-based research gives the most direct empirical window: a multi‑clinic study covering August 2009–August 2013 reported 1.9% of abortions were for pregnancies resulting from rape, though rates differed between clinics and subpopulations ^[2]. That finding is important because clinic populations are real-world care seekers, but they are not nationally representative: clinic catchment areas, referral pathways, and reporting practices vary widely, producing local variability that blocks simple national extrapolation ^[2].

3. Older population estimates suggest a different picture but have limits

Population-level research from the 1990s estimated a 5% pregnancy rate per rape among women of reproductive age and modeled tens of thousands of rape‑related pregnancies annually, with an implied high abortion uptake among victims who became pregnant ^[5]. Those historical estimates illustrate potential scale but rely on older data and modeling assumptions that do not reflect current incidence, reporting, prevention, or care-seeking patterns. Relying on these older figures to state a 2025 percentage is methodologically unsound without new, corroborating national data ^[5].

4. Why translating incidence to "percentage of abortions" is fraught

Converting rape‑related pregnancy incidence into a share of total abortions requires contemporaneous denominators for total abortions and reliable numerator data for rape/incest‑related cases—both of which are incomplete in 2025 reporting. Overviews and state‑level summaries note that while some state abortion bans include exceptions for rape or incest, reporting practices differ and exemptions may not be documented in a way that feeds into national surveillance ^{[1] [4]}. Thus, any attempt to compute a U.S. percentage in 2025 involves multiple unsupported assumptions about underreporting and heterogeneous legal frameworks.

5. Competing narratives and their likely agendas

Advocacy groups on both sides of the abortion debate frequently cite selective numbers: opponents of broad access sometimes assert higher shares of abortions are for rape to justify exceptions, while reproductive-rights advocates emphasize the rarity of rape‑related abortions to argue against carve‑outs that leave many people without access. Because clinic‑level studies and older models can be cherry‑picked to support either argument, readers should treat single-number claims with caution and note the policy agendas that accompany their use ^{[2] [5]}.

6. What the best current evidence supports

The most defensible, recent empirical statement is that clinic-based research finds rape-related abortions are a small minority—about 1.9% in a multi‑clinic study—while national-level, contemporary data to produce a precise 2025 percentage are absent ^{[2] [3]}. That measured conclusion aligns with the available peer‑reviewed clinic evidence and the acknowledgment by major summaries that national percentages are not currently reported, offering a balanced synthesis rather than an overstated single figure ^{[1] [2]}.

7. Data gaps and what would change the picture

Closing the uncertainty requires standardized, confidential data collection linking reason for abortion (including rape/incest) with national abortion surveillance; improved clinical documentation and anonymized reporting; and updated population studies that reflect post‑2020 legal and access shifts. Without such investments, estimates will continue to rely on clinic samples and dated modeling, leaving room for misinterpretation and political misuse of numbers ^{[4] [5]}.

8. Bottom line and practical guidance for readers

As of 2025, the responsible answer is that no validated national percentage exists, and the best empirical clinic estimate available in the literature is about 1.9%, but that figure cannot be confidently scaled to the entire U.S. population without stronger, current national surveillance ^{[2] [3]}. Readers and policymakers should treat single-percentage claims skeptically, demand transparent methodology, and support improved data collection if precise national accounting is required for policy decisions ^{[1] [4]}.