The number babies killed by abortion in Alaska has held steady over the past five years, averaging about 1,235 annually, but chemically induced deaths have become the leading method to kill pre-born babies. At the same time, Alaska’s overall fertility rate has plummeted to an all-time low.

According to Alaska’s 2023 abortion report, 1,194 women underwent 1,222 abortions last year. Most of these women (73%) were unmarried. Teens (ages of 15-19) accounted for 123 abortions, and four others were performed on girls younger than 15.

As in past years, the State of Alaska used public funds to underwrite more than 4 out of 10 abortions (or 514 total). In 2023, the state paid for 42% of all abortions using state-generated Medicaid dollars.

For the first time since the state began tracking this data, chemical abortions accounted for more than half (56%) of all Alaska abortions.

Also included in the abortion report is the fact that between 2018 and 2022, Alaska’s fertility rate has fallen from 69.5 to 63.8 births per 1,000 women. Fertility rates are based only on the number of live births. Abortion, miscarriage, fetal death and simply not becoming pregnant, all have an impact on the state’s plunging fertility rate.

Of the Alaska women who underwent abortions, most (92%) did so when their baby was 13-weeks or less in gestational age, while 8% of babies were older than that.

Chemical abortions using the drug Mifepristone, which kills the baby by cutting it off from her mother’s nourishing placenta, became the most common way to destroy pre-born children. For the first time since the state began tracking abortions, mifepristone accounted for more than half (56%) of all Alaska abortions.

This comes at a time when drug stores like Walgreens have begun selling mifepristone over the counter in local Alaska stores. This was made possible through a Biden administration regulation, but Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor has warned drug stores that it still violates state law to do so.

Mifepristone causes the placenta to detach from the uterine wall. A second drug (misoprostol) is given two days later to induce an abortion, which often occurs at home, workplaces and other settings outside of a clinic.

Despite the fact that a 2005 Alaska law requires informed consent before abortions are performed, only 19% of women who underwent abortions last year received state-provided information on fetal development, the pros and cons of abortion, pregnancy facts and adoption alternatives.

Annual Alaska abortion reports are mandated by state law, requiring hospitals, clinics and individual abortionists to submit information. The forms used for reporting, however, cannot contain the name of the patient, abortionist, facility or geographical area where the abortion occurred, and the forms are destroyed after the annual report is finalized.

Nevertheless, it is clear that black women and Alaska Native/American Indian women are overrepresented when it comes to abortion. Alaska Native/American Indian women accounted for 27% of abortions in 2023, while comprising less than 22% of the overall population of women. Likewise, black Alaskans comprise just 3.7% of the female population, but accounted for 8% of abortions.

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