Abortion Statistics in Canada 2026 | Rates, Causes & Key Facts

Abortion in Canada 2026

Canada stands as one of the few countries in the world with no federal law restricting abortion at any stage of pregnancy — a legal position that has been in place since the Supreme Court’s landmark R v Morgentaler decision in 1988, which struck down the existing Criminal Code provisions as unconstitutional. In 2026, this legal framework remains unchanged, and access to abortion services — though uneven across provinces and territories — continues to be governed primarily through provincial healthcare administration and clinical practice rather than statute. The most recent data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), released on 19 March 2026 and covering the calendar year 2024, confirms that 102,705 induced abortions were reported in Canada — the second-highest total recorded in the past twenty years, surpassed only by the 108,784 reported in 2011 when CIHI significantly expanded its reporting methodology. This figure represents a 1.1% increase from the 101,553 abortions reported in 2023, the first year the count had crossed the 100,000 mark since 2015.

The Canada abortion statistics for 2026 reflect two intersecting structural shifts that have reshaped how and where abortions occur. First, the nationwide rollout of Mifegymiso (the Canadian brand of the mifepristone-misoprostol medical abortion drug combination, approved by Health Canada in 2015 and available in pharmacies since 2017) has fundamentally changed the service delivery landscape: medical (medication) abortions now account for nearly half of all procedures, up from under 4% before 2017, and hospital-based abortions have fallen from 46.3% of all procedures in 2008 to just 20.3% in 2024. Second, the rapid growth in Canada’s population of women of childbearing age — which increased by approximately 400,000 between 2023 and 2024 alone — has pushed the total number of reported abortions upward even as the abortion rate per 1,000 women has fallen, from 11.1 in 2023 to 10.8 in 2024. These diverging numerator and denominator trends make the headline number of abortions a less informative metric than the rate, and both need to be understood in the context of ongoing, confirmed under-reporting in the CIHI dataset.

Key Facts: Canada Abortion Statistics 2026

Sources: Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2024 (March 19, 2026); CIHI, Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2023 (March 20, 2025); Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, Statistics — Abortion in Canada (updated April 5, 2026); Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care 2023 data; Statistics Canada, Population Estimates (CANSIM Table 17-10-0005-01); CBC News, February 12, 2026 (Quebec RAMQ data)

The key facts behind Canada’s 2026 abortion statistics reveal a system where the headline total of 102,705 simultaneously overstates and understates the true picture. It overstates it because a meaningful share of those abortions represent methodology improvements — CIHI has expanded its physician billing data capture in several provinces since 2021, pulling in procedures that were previously invisible to the national count. It understates it because clinic and family doctor reporting remains entirely voluntary under Canadian law: hospitals are mandated to report all activity, but the roughly 80% of abortions now occurring outside hospitals are subject to incomplete capture. The Ontario Ministry of Health’s own provincial data for 2023 — which captures all billable procedures across all settings — reported 52,467 abortions in Ontario alone, compared to CIHI’s national figure. This suggests the true national total may be substantially higher than 102,705, and that the apparent year-over-year increase in abortion numbers is partly a methodological artefact of progressively better data collection rather than a pure behavioural trend.

What the data confirms unambiguously is the transformative effect of Mifegymiso on where and how abortion services are delivered. The drug, available through community pharmacies since 2017 and covered under most provincial health plans, has single-handedly shifted the centre of gravity of abortion care from specialised urban surgical clinics to primary care settings in communities that had previously had no local abortion access at all. A 2025 CMAJ study found that the proportion of Ontario residents living within reach of a local abortion service rose from 37% to 91% in five years — almost entirely attributable to pharmacy dispensing of Mifegymiso. The 80% jump in Mifegymiso prescriptions in Quebec from 2024 to 2025 — from 1,586 to 2,852 — is the most recent quantified evidence that this transformation is still accelerating rather than plateauing.

Canada Abortion Totals — Historical Trend 2015–2024

Reported Induced Abortions in Canada (Annual, 2015–2024)
2015  |█████████████████████████████████████| 100,062
2016  |█████████████████████████████████    |  94,030
2017  |████████████████████████████████     |  94,002
2018  |███████████████████████████████      |  91,326
2019  |█████████████████████████████        |  83,576 (record low)
2020  |████████████████████████████████     |  92,081
2021  |████████████████████████████████     |  90,770
2022  |████████████████████████████████████ |  97,211
2023  |█████████████████████████████████████| 101,553
2024  |█████████████████████████████████████| 102,705
      |------+------+------+------+------+---|
      0    20K   40K   60K   80K  100K  110K

Sources: Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), Induced Abortions Reported in Canada, annual releases 2016–2026; Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, Statistics — Abortion in Canada (updated April 5, 2026); We Need a Law, analysis of CIHI 2024 data (March 24, 2026)

The historical trend in Canadian abortion statistics from 2015 to 2024 tells a nuanced story that cannot be reduced to a simple upward or downward trajectory. Between 2015 and 2019, reported abortions fell consistently and significantly — from 100,062 to 83,576, a drop of 16.5% — driven by a combination of genuinely lower demand among younger women (linked by researchers to improved long-acting reversible contraceptive access), demographic shifts toward delayed childbearing, and a possible methodological effect as CIHI’s reporting captured fewer procedures from independent clinics. The 2019 figure of 83,576 was the lowest reported since 1989, the first full year after the Morgentaler decision, and represented an abortion rate of just 9.8 per 1,000 women aged 15–49 — a level not seen since the mid-1980s.

The increase from 2020 onward is partly genuine and partly methodological. The 2020 jump to 92,081 largely reflects CIHI’s enhanced reporting methodology that year, which began capturing physician billing data in five provinces for procedures that had previously gone uncounted. The sustained increases in 2022, 2023, and 2024 reflect a combination of real factors: population growth, which has significantly expanded the number of women of childbearing age in Canada (immigration drove a 4.3% increase in this population between 2023 and 2024 alone); improved access through Mifegymiso bringing in procedures that would previously have required travel to a distant clinic; and possible genuine shifts in demand related to contraceptive behaviour changes observed in Ontario research. Critically, the abortion rate fell from 11.1 to 10.8 per 1,000 women between 2023 and 2024 even as the total count rose — confirming that population growth, not behavioural change, is the primary driver of rising numbers.

Canada Abortion Method: Surgical vs Medical (Medication) in 2024

Abortion Method Share in Canada (% of reported procedures)
2008  Surgical |████████████████████████████████████████| 100% (pre-mifepristone)
2017  Surgical |█████████████████████████████████████   |  ~96%
2019  Surgical |████████████████████████████████████    |  ~90%
2022  Surgical |████████████████████████████████████    |  63.2%
2023  Surgical |█████████████████████████████████       |  58.7%
2024  Surgical |████████████████████████████████        |  ~52.5%
2024  Medical  |████████████████████████                |  ~47.5%
               |-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------|
               0%   20%  40%  60%  80%  100%

Sources: CIHI, Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2024 (March 19, 2026); CIHI Induced Abortions 2023 (March 20, 2025); We Need a Law CIHI analysis (March 24, 2026); CMAJ, “Changes in local access to mifepristone dispensed by community pharmacies for medication abortion in Ontario” (April 7, 2025)

The shift in abortion method in Canada is one of the most significant and consequential structural changes in Canadian healthcare delivery over the past decade. In the years before Mifegymiso became widely dispensed through pharmacies, surgical abortion — primarily vacuum aspiration in the first trimester and dilation and evacuation in the second — accounted for essentially all procedures. Medical abortion using the mifepristone-misoprostol combination existed in principle but was confined to a tiny share of cases because access to the drug was limited to a very small number of clinical settings. The 2017 expansion allowing community pharmacists to dispense Mifegymiso changed everything. In just seven years from that regulatory change, the medical abortion share has risen from under 4% to approximately 47.5%, and all available trend indicators suggest medical abortion will exceed surgical in reported statistics within one to two years.

The implications of this shift extend well beyond simple method substitution. Medical abortion is primarily a first-trimester procedure — Mifegymiso is approved in Canada for use up to 9 weeks gestational age — meaning its expansion compresses the gestational age distribution of abortions toward earlier timing, which is associated with lower clinical risk and faster service delivery. It also means that access is now available in many rural and remote communities that had no abortion provider at all before pharmacy dispensing began, because a family doctor or nurse practitioner with prescribing rights can authorise Mifegymiso without any specialised equipment. This geographic decentralisation is the most significant access improvement in Canadian reproductive healthcare since the Morgentaler clinics of the 1980s. However, the shift also intensifies the under-reporting problem: family doctors are not required to report abortions induced in their offices, meaning the true share of medical abortions — and therefore the true national total — is almost certainly higher than the CIHI figures indicate.

Canada Abortions by Age Group in 2023

Reported Abortions in Canada by Age Group (2023, CIHI data)
Under 18   |██                                   | ~2,000  (2%)
18–19      |████                                 | ~4,200
20–24      |██████████████████████               | ~22,700
25–29      |████████████████████████████████████ |  25,677 (largest)
30–34      |████████████████████████████████     |  ~23,500
35–39      |██████████████████                   |  ~12,700
40+        |████                                 |  ~4,600
Unknown    |███                                  |  ~6,100
           |------+------+------+------+------+--|
           0    5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000

Sources: CIHI, Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2023, by patient age (March 20, 2025); Statista, “Number of abortions reported in Canada in 2023, by patient age” (CIHI source, accessed June 15, 2026); We Need a Law, CIHI 2024 analysis (March 24, 2026); Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, Statistics — Abortion in Canada (April 5, 2026)

The age distribution of abortions in Canada has shifted significantly over the past two decades in ways that challenge the common assumption that abortion is primarily a concern for very young women. In 2023, the 25–29 age group accounted for the single largest share at 25,677 abortions, followed closely by the 30–34 cohort — meaning that women in their late twenties and early thirties account for the largest concentrations of abortion patients in the country. Only 2% of reported abortions were performed on individuals aged 17 and under, and the abortion rate among teenagers has declined consistently since the early 2000s, reflecting both lower teen pregnancy rates (linked to improved contraceptive education and long-acting reversible contraceptive access) and shifting demographic patterns around sexual activity.

The most pronounced and policy-relevant age trend is the increase in abortion rates among women aged 30 and over. The abortion rate for women aged 30–34 rose from 13.9 to 15.0 per 1,000 between 2004 and 2024, while the rate for women aged 35 and over rose from 3.8 to 5.5 per 1,000 — a 45% increase over twenty years. Researchers attribute this primarily to the delay in first childbearing that has characterised Canadian demographic trends: women are entering their peak fertile years with more partnerships, more life transitions, and greater engagement with the labour market than previous generations, all of which create circumstances where unintended pregnancy is more likely to result in a decision to terminate. The continued dominance of the 20–24 and 25–29 age groups reflects the interaction of high sexual activity rates with inconsistent contraceptive use, a pattern consistent with research findings across all high-income countries.

Canada Abortions by Province in 2023

Reported Abortions by Province (2023 CIHI data, approx.)
Ontario    |████████████████████████████████████████| ~42,000+
Quebec     |█████████████████████████               | ~22,766
BC         |█████████████████                       | ~15,000
Alberta    |██████████████                          | ~10,500
Others     |████████████                            | ~11,000
           |-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------|
           0  5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 40,000

Sources: CIHI, Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2023 (March 20, 2025); Statista, “Number of abortions reported in Canada in 2023, by provider and territory” (CIHI source); Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care 2023 data; CBC News New Brunswick (November 7, 2024); Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, Statistics (April 5, 2026)

The provincial distribution of abortions in Canada is fundamentally shaped by population size, with Ontario and Quebec together accounting for well over 60% of all reported procedures. Ontario’s dominance is even more pronounced than the CIHI headline suggests: the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s own provincial data for 2023 recorded 52,467 abortions — roughly 10,000 more than CIHI’s national figure for Ontario — because provincial billing systems capture all procedures billed to OHIP, including those performed in GP offices, nurse practitioner settings, and community clinics that may not voluntarily report to CIHI. This provincial-versus-national data gap is the clearest quantified evidence that CIHI’s national total of 102,705 is an undercount. If other large provinces have similar reporting gaps, the true national total could approach or exceed 120,000 per year.

The geographic access picture across provinces remains highly uneven despite Mifegymiso’s expansion. New Brunswick has historically had among the most restricted abortion access of any province — for years, only two cities (Moncton and Fredericton) offered abortion services, limited to two specific hospitals — and while access has gradually improved since 2023 policy changes, it remains far below what is available in Ontario or British Columbia. Prince Edward Island had no abortion provider at all until 2016 and still relies on a single hospital for surgical procedures, though Mifegymiso has substantially improved first-trimester access. The territories face the most severe access barriers of all: residents of Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, and Yukon who need a surgical abortion typically must travel to southern cities, with the associated costs and logistical burdens. CIHI data consistently shows that the number of abortions performed tracks closely with population size and local access infrastructure — not with underlying demand, which researchers believe is more uniformly distributed across the country.

Canada Abortion Rate Trends by Key Metrics 2026

Abortion Rate per 1,000 Women (15–49) — Canada Historical Peaks and Lows
1996 peak   |████████████████████████████████████████| 14.2 (highest recorded)
2006        |███████████████████████████████         | 13.0
2011        |███████████████████████████             | 12.5 (post-methodology jump)
2015        |███████████████████████████             | ~12.4
2019 low    |████████████████████████                |  9.8 (lowest since 1987)
2022        |██████████████████████████              | 11.1
2023        |██████████████████████████              | 11.1
2024        |█████████████████████████               | 10.8
            |-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+----------|
            0     3     6     9    12    15

Sources: CIHI, Induced Abortions Reported in Canada in 2024 (March 19, 2026); CIHI 2023 data (March 20, 2025); We Need a Law CIHI analysis (March 24, 2026); Statistics Canada, Population Estimates, Table 17-10-0005-01; Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (April 5, 2026)

The abortion rate data is the most analytically meaningful dimension of Canadian abortion statistics, and its trajectory from 9.8 in 2019 to 10.8 in 2024 tells a more accurate story than the rising total count. The 2019 low-water mark was not a coincidence — it followed a long and sustained decline in abortion rates that began in the late 1990s, driven by a real reduction in unintended pregnancies, particularly among younger women. The subsequent rebound to around 11.0–11.1 by 2022–2023 reflects the methodological expansion of CIHI reporting, Mifegymiso’s access effect pulling previously invisible procedures into the count, and genuine population effects from immigration. The fall from 11.1 to 10.8 in 2024, even as the total count rose by 1.1%, is the key data point: it demonstrates that the number of abortions per woman in Canada is not rising, and that the growth in total procedures is almost entirely attributable to the expansion of the female population of childbearing age rather than a change in how often women in that population seek abortion.

The relationship between the abortion rate and access infrastructure is one of the most studied questions in Canadian reproductive health research. The CMAJ April 2025 study of Ontario found that abortion rates gradually increased from 2017 as mifepristone became widely available, with the most significant per-population increase among women aged 20–24 (a rate difference of +4.2 per 1,000 versus pre-mifepristone trends). This suggests that improved access does, at the margin, increase utilisation — not because demand was previously absent, but because unmet need existed: women who would have chosen abortion under pre-2017 conditions but faced access barriers that made it impossible or impractical. The narrowing of that access gap is the primary mechanism through which the Mifegymiso rollout has changed Canada’s national abortion statistics in ways that go beyond mere methodological capture improvements.

Legal and Access Framework for Abortion in Canada 2026

Canadian Abortion Access Infrastructure (2024)
Hospitals performing abortions    |████                              | <17% of all hospitals
Provinces with full access        |████████████████████████████████  | 7 of 13 prov/terr
Provinces with limited access     |████████████                      | 4 (NB, NS, PEI, NL)
Territories with limited access   |████████████                      | 3 (YT, NT, NU)
Population with local service (ON)|████████████████████████████████████| 91% (up from 37%)
Provinces covering Mifegymiso     |████████████████████████████████  | All 10 provinces
Approved gestational limit        |                                  | No legal limit
Health Canada Mifegymiso limit    |████████████████████████████████  | Up to 9 weeks GA
                                  |---+---+---+---+---+---+----------|
                                  (Illustrative scale)

Sources: Health Canada — Mifegymiso (mifepristone) product information; Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, Statistics — Abortion in Canada (April 5, 2026); ARCC Position Paper — Later Abortions (November 2024); CBC News, March 2025 (Vancouver clinic closure); Canadian Constitution Foundation; Canada Health Act

Canada’s legal and access framework for abortion in 2026 is characterised by an unusual combination of broad legal permissiveness at the federal level and significant practical variation at the provincial level. The 1988 Morgentaler decision did not create a positive constitutional right to abortion — it struck down the existing criminal restriction as a violation of Section 7 of the Charter (the right to security of the person) — and Parliament has never enacted replacement legislation. The result is a legal vacuum: abortion is not regulated by criminal law, leaving its governance entirely to provincial health ministries, hospital boards, and clinical practice guidelines. This structure protects abortion from federal legislative restriction in ways that observers have noted make Canada’s legal position significantly more robust than that of the United States, where Roe v Wade was overturned in 2022 and abortion access now varies dramatically by state.

In practice, however, the absence of a federal access guarantee means that provincial variation remains significant. The closure of the Vancouver Elizabeth Bagshaw Clinic on 29 March 2025 — one of western Canada’s longest-established dedicated abortion clinics — underlined the fragility of access when it depends on individual providers and clinic sustainability rather than integrated health system planning. The continued reality that fewer than 17% of Canadian hospitals perform abortions reflects a combination of historical Catholic hospital governance (which continues to exclude reproductive services at dozens of major hospitals), practitioner conscience objection provisions, and simple lack of trained providers in smaller communities. Mifegymiso has partially compensated for this structural gap — but a patient needing a second-trimester or later surgical procedure still faces a much more constrained geography than someone seeking medication abortion in the first nine weeks.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

Email ID:

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Email

Email *

SUBSCRIBE