Republican states claim zero abortions. A red state doctor calls that 'ludicrous'

States reported a sharp decline in abortions after Roe v. Wade was overruled.

In nearly a dozen states with total or near-total abortion bans, government officials claimed that zero or very few abortions occurred in 2023 .

Those statistics have been celebrated by anti-abortion activists.

Medical professionals say such accounts are not only untrue but fundamentally dishonest.

Abortion rights supporters agree that there has been a steep drop in the number of abortions in every state that enacted laws criminalizing abortion.

Practitioners find themselves working in a culture of confusion and fear, which could contribute to a hesitancy to report abortions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not mandate abortion reporting, and some Democratic -led states, including California , do not require clinics or health care providers to collect data.

WeCount reported an average of 2,800 telehealth abortions a month in Texas from April to June 2024 .

Still, some state officials in states with abortion bans have sought to choke off the supply of medication that induces abortion.

Good-government groups like Common Cause say the dangers of officials relying on misleading statistics are myriad.