The PA Department of Health has released its 2024 Abortion Statistics report, and it presents a sobering mix of tragedy and triumph. For those committed to protecting life, this annual state report must remind us that the work ahead remains urgent.
A Sign of Hope: Abortions Declined in 2024
There is genuine good news in the 2024 report. Abortion in Pennsylvania declined from the previous year, with more than 2,400 fewer abortions occurring in 2024 than in 2023. Behind every number is a human life, and a 7% year-decline in abortion is evidence of more children being given life.
One tangible result of this decrease may be the contraction of the abortion industry itself. In early 2025, another Planned Parenthood “feeder clinic” shut down—this time in Moon Township. These sites do not perform abortions but exist to refer women into the abortion system.
Over the last 25 years, the abortion industry in Pennsylvania has been steadily closing facilities:
- 10 abortion facilities have shut down
- 17 Planned Parenthood feeder sites have closed
This is good news. But the recent report also makes evident the ugly truth about the state of abortion in Pennsylvania.
The Tragic Reality: Tens of Thousands of Lives Lost
Despite the 7% decline from 2023, nearly 33,000 babies were aborted in Pennsylvania in 2024.
That’s over 2,700 abortions every month. 91 abortions every day.
That number represents classrooms that will never be filled, families forever changed, and children who were denied the most basic human right—the right to be born.
The report’s details deepen the tragedy.
- Chemical Abortion Complications Continue to Rise
Chemical abortions continue to climb, now representing 56% of all abortions in Pennsylvania. Additionally, two-thirds of all reported abortion complications in Pennsylvania are the result of chemical abortions.
This matters because chemical abortion is often falsely marketed as “simple” or “safe.” The data tells a different story—one in which women are increasingly experiencing complications, often outside of medical supervision, and are left to deal with the physical and emotional aftermath alone.
- Dismemberment Abortions Continue—Despite the Ability to Stop Them
The report shows that over 1,600 abortions in 2024 were performed using the D&E procedure, a dismemberment abortion in which a living unborn child is torn apart limb by limb.
This barbaric practice could have been banned in Pennsylvania. The General Assembly passed legislation to end it, but former Governor Tom Wolf vetoed the bill, allowing these procedures to continue.
- Late-Term Abortions Persist
More than 500 abortions were performed after five months of pregnancy. Pennsylvania continues to permit abortion up to six months in pregnancy, a point at which unborn children, in many cases, could survive outside the womb with medical care.
Moving Forward: Resolve, Not Resignation
32,946 abortions in 2024. May we never lose sight of the humanity behind these numbers.
Click here to read the full report from the Department of Health.
While seeing fewer abortions than the previous year is encouraging, there are still tens of thousands of lives lost each year to abortion in Pennsylvania.
- It’s why supporting your local pregnancy resource centers and organizations like the PPWC is so important.
- It’s why events like the PA March for Life (Sept 21) and the National March for Life (January 23) are valuable in advancing a culture of life.
- It’s why educating your church during Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is so important.
- It’s why advancing laws that protect both mothers and their children are so critical.
Hope is growing—but so is our responsibility.
Will you join us at this year’s National March for Life in Washington, D.C.? Don’t miss this opportunity to be a voice for the voiceless and stand against the violence of abortion. Visit pafamily.org/bus to register for our bus or find one near you.
