Topline
The number of women living more than an hour away from an abortion clinic has doubled since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, according to a study published in JAMA on Tuesday, illustrating how quickly abortion rights have been curtailed across the U.S. as lawmakers, courts and clinicians continue to navigate fallout from the ruling.
More women live further away from abortion clinics after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ... [+]
Key Facts
The average woman would need to travel for more than 100 minutes to reach an abortion clinic following the Supreme Court’s decision in June, according to the peer reviewed study using census data from nearly 64 million women aged 15 to 44 years in all states bar Alaska and Hawaii.
Before the ruling and subsequent flurry of state laws restricting access to abortion, the average travel time to a clinic was less than 30 minutes, the researchers estimated using a model that simulated the closure of abortion facilities in the 15 states with existing total or 6-week abortion bans at the end of September.
The number of women living more than 60 minutes travel of an abortion facility more than doubled after the ruling, the researchers estimated using census data, jumping from 15% before to 33% after.
The median journey time to an abortion clinic, a better representation of the mid-point of the data given the outliers, still shows a marked increase in travel time, rising from around 11 minutes before the ruling to to an estimated 17 minutes afterwards.
Access to abortion services in the aftermath of the court’s decision has not been evenly distributed, however, and the average figure is distorted by the extreme distances now imposed on some women and obscures the disproportionate impact felt by poorer women and women of color.
The census data showed women living more than 60 minutes from an abortion facility were more likely to be without health insurance and high school diplomas, have lower average incomes and be Black, Hispanic and American Indians and Alaska Natives both before and after the ruling, though these inequalities widened further following the decision.
Key Background
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, a decades-long precedent that enshrined the right to an abortion across the U.S. The decision polarized the country and has been painted as both an assault on women’s rights and a victory for anti-abortion activists. The ruling handed the ability to regulate abortion back to individual states and it immediately triggered laws to restrict or ban abortion entirely that were already written into the law of some states. Most abortions are now banned in at least 13 states and the legal status of the procedure in many others is an active question. The consequences have been widespread and stretch beyond abortion itself.Many clinics have closed, clinics in some states that protect abortion access are struggling with a deluge of out-of-state patients, while clinicians are struggling to provide essential care due to anti-abortion legislation that restricts access to medicines routinely used in obstetrics and for diseases like lupus.
Big Number
10,570. That’s how many fewer legal abortions there have been across the U.S. since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, according to data reported by FiveThirtyEight. However, the overall figure obscures important nuances between states and a more granular look indicates that some states are cushioning the impact of the court’s decision. In states where the number of abortions dropped after the court’s decision, the number of legal abortions fell by around 22,000, the outlet reported, while the total number grew by an estimated 12,000 in other states.
What To Watch For
Anecdotal reports, as well as the kind of data reported by FiveThirtyEight, suggests more people are traveling out of state for abortion care in light of the bans and restrictions in place across much of the country. The right to travel across state lines to obtain an abortion, which has pulled much of corporate America and many employers into the debate over abortion access, is already shaping up to be one of the next big battlegrounds over abortion. Conservative lawmakers in a number of states have already floated legislation to ban or restrict such travel—they have also restricted access to abortion medication across state lines—and efforts to enshrine the right in federal law have failed in the Senate.
Tangent
Data from Texas, which banned most abortions after six weeks in September 2021, offers an early picture into what abortion access in the U.S. will like after Roe. The law’s implementation was tightly linked with an immediate drop in the number of abortions provided at brick-and-mortar centers both within Texas itself and obtained by residents in surrounding states, according to a study published in JAMA on Tuesday. In the six months following the law’s implementation, abortions obtained out-of-state by Texas residents jumped from 17% to 31%, though the researchers noted this was not enough to fully offset the overall decrease. With bans or restrictions in place across many neighboring states, the researchers said many could face even greater struggles accessing abortion care out-of-state.
Further Reading
100 Days Since Roe V. Wade Was Overturned: The 11 Biggest Consequences (Forbes)
Risking Everything to Offer Abortions Across State Lines (NYT)
Abortion deserts: America’s new geography of access to care – mapped (Guardian)
Abortion By The Numbers (Forbes)
