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Rights & Freedoms · Report · File No. 261112-868

Guttmacher: Nurse practitioners and others gave a third of U.S. abortions in 2025

A new Guttmacher Institute estimate says advanced practice clinicians, not physicians, provided more than 360,000 U.S. abortions last year. The finding comes as states fight over who is allowed to provide this care.

By the National Desk · · 2 min read

Every quote in this story (2) was matched word for word against its source. How we work

My clippings

More than 360,000 abortions in the United States in 2025 were provided by advanced practice clinicians rather than physicians, according to new data from the Guttmacher Institute 1. That is about a third of all abortions last year 1. Guttmacher is a think tank that researches and advocates for abortion access 1.

Advanced practice clinicians include nurse practitioners, certified midwives, certified nurse midwives, physician associates and advanced practice registered nurses 1. The count includes both procedures and abortions by pill 1. It leaves out self-managed abortions and those obtained outside the formal medical system 1.

Who can provide abortions

Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia allow at least some non-physician clinicians to provide abortions 1. Many of those states limit the care to first-trimester aspiration procedures or pills 1. Guttmacher's release says 25 states bar these clinicians from providing abortions 2.

In the places that allow it, these clinicians gave an estimated 43% of clinician-provided abortions, Guttmacher says 2. Its estimates cover clinic procedures and pills, plus pills prescribed by telehealth, meaning a video or phone visit 2.

These data help to illustrate the critical role that (advanced-practice clinicians) play in providing abortions across the country, including in many underserved communities,
Isaac Maddow-Zimet, data scientist and study lead, Guttmacher Institute1

Guttmacher says these providers fill a key gap at a time of shortages of obstetrician-gynecologists (OB-GYNs) and more than a dozen state abortion bans 1. Maddow-Zimet added that they also give counseling and follow-up care in states where they cannot provide abortions directly 1.

Bans on APC provision are designed to tie the hands of skillfully trained APCs
Julie Jenkins, Clinicians in Abortion Care Program Strategist, National Abortion Federation2

The legal fights

In 2016, the Food and Drug Administration changed its guidelines for the abortion drug mifepristone so that clinicians such as midwives could prescribe it 1. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Alaska, Michigan, North Carolina and Ohio have struck down physician-only abortion laws 1.

In Arizona, nurses and midwives have an ongoing lawsuit saying the state's bars on their providing abortion violate the abortion-rights amendment voters passed in 2024 1. In Missouri, a judge struck down many abortion restrictions this year but upheld the physician-only law, citing differences in training for different types of abortions 1.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends letting these clinicians provide abortions 1. It says limiting care to physicians or board-certified OB-GYNs is not based in science and impedes patients' access to quality care 1.

What happens next

Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin could consider allowing these providers to offer abortions after Democrats won full control of state government there in this month's midterms and promised to expand abortion access 1. Whether they act will depend on those new governments and, in Arizona, on the court case 1.

That matters because the data show how much of the country's abortion care depends on clinicians who are barred from providing it in half the states 12. Any new limit that targets these providers would reach about a third of the care Guttmacher counted last year 1. Guttmacher is an advocacy group, but its figures come from a monthly provider study with a published method 2.

The Record

  1. The FDA changed mifepristone guidelines to let advanced practice clinicians such as midwives prescribe it. 1
  2. Arizona voters passed a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, now cited in a nurses' and midwives' lawsuit. 1
  3. Stateline reports Guttmacher data showing more than 360,000 abortions in 2025 were provided by advanced practice clinicians. 1
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Sources

  1. Stateline, “A third of US abortions were provided by non-physicians last year, Guttmacher says” (2026-11-12). stateline.org/2026/11/12/a-third-of-us-abortions-were-provid
  2. Guttmacher Institute, “First-Ever National Estimates Show that Advanced Practice Clinicians Provided More than 360,000 Abortions in 2025” (2026-10-29). guttmacher.org/node/301001/printable/print

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