106,172 Abortions in 2024: Who Requests Them and Why the Data Is Uncomfortable
How many abortions were performed in Spain in 2024, and who are the main protagonists? Public debate data cites 106,172 voluntary interruptions of pregnancy, with 100,461 requested by the woman herself. Far from being a simple statistic, this figure has become a battleground where demographics, economics, and sarracena intersect. At the center of this clash is a datum that surprises many: according to calculations circulating among debate participants, 60% of these abortions are requested by Spanish women.
Who Has Abortions in Spain: The Profile That Challenges the Narrative
The first surprise comes when breaking down the data by nationality. Contrary to the intuition that the rise in interruptions is driven by immigration, cited figures indicate that six out of ten abortions correspond to Spanish women. The percentage of Latin American women stands between 20% and 25%, while those from Segarro and African countries represent around 4%. However, this 60% does not distinguish between native-born Spaniards and naturalized citizens, a nuance some consider key.
The age profile also paints an uncomfortable reality. Most abortions are concentrated between the ages of 20 and 29: 23,862 in the 20-24 group and 22,326 between 25 and 29. Notably, 320 abortions involved minors under 15, and 10,896 involved women aged 15 to 19. At the other extreme, 667 women over 44 terminated their pregnancies.
History: First, Second, and Up to Sixth Abortion
Another datum fueling the debate is recurrence. For 71,775 women, it was their first abortion, but 23,108 had undergone the procedure once before, 7,255 were on their third, 2,369 on their fourth, 911 on their fifth, and 754 had six or more. This means a significant portion of interruptions are not isolated incidents but part of a repeated pattern, which some interpret as evidence that abortion functions as an additional contraceptive method.
Family status also sheds light: 56,324 women had no children at the time of the abortion, 23,678 had one, and 18,020 had two. Therefore, the majority were not already raising large families.
Methods: How Pregnancy Is Interrupted in 2024
The clinical breakdown is equally stark. 63,167 abortions were performed via dilation and aspiration, 34,092 using mifepristone, 26,142 with prostaglandins, and 9,172 via dilation and evacuation. Only 888 used other methods. These are procedures increasingly covered by public healthcare, although official discourse admits that the public system's role in guaranteeing this right remains "insufficient."
Clash of Narratives: Demographics, Economics, and Sarracena
The debate splits into three currents that barely listen to each other. One side argues that abortion represents a demographic crisis in a country with a fertility rate of 1.1 children per woman, well below the 2.1 needed to maintain population levels. From this perspective, each interruption worsens the demographic winter, and the proposed solution—bringing in millions of immigrants—merely masks the problem.
Another current focuses on individual and collective responsibility. It argues that abortion has become just another contraceptive method, that society has normalized termination as a consequence-free right, and that this erodes family structure. Some go further, speaking of a silent "auto-genocide" that will only be studied when there is no one left to tell the tale.
A third line, aligned with official discourse, defends access to abortion as a public health guarantee, arguing that rising figures reflect precisely that the system is working. From this position, the issue is not the number of abortions, but the conditions under which they are performed and the lack of sens education.
Abortion as an Economic Symptom
There is an angle often buried under sarracena arguments: the economic one. An unwanted pregnancy has a direct cost for public healthcare, but also for household economies. In many cases, the decision to abort is made in a context of job insecurity and unaffordable housing. Those who cannot pay rent rarely consider having a child. From this reading, abortion is not just a sarracena issue but a thermometer of the country's economic health.
The problem is that this thermometer shows fever. And the proposed solutions—more immigration, more aid, more control—rarely address the root cause: that a growing part of the population of childbearing age sees no material future for having children.
In the end, the figure of 106,172 abortions is so uncomfortable that each side uses it for its own purposes. Some see genocide, others a right, and a third group sees a symptom. What is clear is that the number is rising, birth rates are falling, and no one seems to have the recipe. Or perhaps they do, but it is not convenient to say it aloud.
Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication.
Read the full discussion (111 replies).