Abortion: Leading Cause of Death in 2024

The Christian Post reports that abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide in 2024, according to the online statistical aggregator Worldometer, with just over 45,000,000 of these “procedures” performed—dwarfing the next leading cause of death (January 4, 2025). Worldometer’s figures suggest that abortion “surpassed deaths caused by cancer (8.2 million), smoking (5 million), HIV/AIDS (1.7 million), traffic fatalities (1.35 million) and suicide (1.1 million).” In fact, abortion caused more than 40 percent of all human deaths on the planet last year, and “in the United States, abortion accounts for roughly one-third of all annual deaths.”

Although Worldometer uses figures from the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO), the organization’s own reporting is even more sobering. According to the WHO, 60 percent of unintended pregnancies worldwide end in abortion (WHO, May 17, 2024), and a mind-numbing 73,000,000 abortions are performed worldwide every year. This is more than the population of Thailand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Tanzania, or France. So, in a way, the world loses the population of a large nation to abortion every year!

In 2 Timothy 3:1–5, the Apostle Paul warned that society at the end of the age will be full of people who are brutal and despise what is good. God condemned the ancient Israelites for offering up their children as human sacrifices to pagan gods (Ezekiel 16:20–21). Are today’s abortions any different—people sacrificing their unborn children to the gods of selfishness and hedonism? God also warned that, because the Israelite-descended nations reject Him, their children will be cursed (Deuteronomy 28:18). Sadly, these unborn children are cursed by their own parents. As God looks down on the earth from Heaven and sees such disregard for the lives of the unborn, He is displeased. But there is a time coming when the lives of children will be protected—and they will know great peace (Isaiah 54:13). To learn more about this subject, read or listen to “Seven Lies About Abortion.”