Abortion has become more common, despite bans or deep restrictions in most Republican-controlled states, and the legal and political fight over its future is far from over.
It has now been two and a half years since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to enact the ban.
Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, policies and their impact have been variable.
Here’s a look at the statistics to see where things stand:
Miscarriages more common than before Dobbs
Overturning Roe and implementing restrictions on abortion changed the way women get abortions in the United States.
One thing it has not done is reduce the number of abortions.
The number of monthly abortions nationwide has recently been slightly higher than in the months before the June 2022 decision, while the number has dropped to almost zero in states with restrictions.
“Abortion bans don’t actually stop abortions from happening,” said Ushama Upadhyay, a public health social scientist at the University of California, San Francisco.
For women in some states, there are huge barriers to getting an abortion — and advocates say low-income, minority and immigrant women are less likely to be able to get an abortion when they want.
For those living in states with restrictions, the way to access an abortion is travel or abortion pills.
Pills become bigger part of the equation – and legal questions
As soon as the ban came into effect, abortion pills became a bigger part of the equation.
They were involved in almost half of the abortions before Dobbs. Recently, it’s been closer to two-thirds of them, according to research from the Guttmacher Institute.
Such abortions, which usually involve a combination of two drugs, were already being practiced before the decision.
But now, writing pill prescriptions via telehealth has become common. By the summer of 2024, in states where abortion is banned, about 1 in 10 abortions were performed with pills given to patients via telehealth.
As a result, the Pill is now at the center of the fight over abortion access.
This month, Texas sued a New York doctor for prescribing pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine. Efforts are also being made by Idaho, Kansas and Missouri to withdraw their federal approvals and treat them as “controlled dangerous substances”, and invoke a 19th-century federal law to ban the federal government from mailing them. Being pressured to do so.
Travel for abortion has increased
Clinics in states with restrictions have closed or halted abortions.
The network of efforts to transport women seeking abortions to places where abortion is legal has grown stronger and travel for abortion is now common.
The Guttmacher Institute found that more than twice as many Texas residents received an abortion in New Mexico in 2023 as New Mexico residents. And as many Texans as Kansans received them in Kansas.
The abortion fund, which benefited from “Giving Rage” in 2022, helped pay the costs of many abortion seekers. But some funds have had to set limits on how much they can give.
The ban that took effect in Florida this year has been a game-changer
Florida, the nation’s third-most populous state, began enforcing a ban on abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy on May 1.
This immediately transformed the state from one that was a haven for other Southerners seeking abortions into an exporter of people seeking them.
There were about 30% fewer abortions there in May than the average for the first three months of the year. And were 35% less in June.
Although the ban is not unique, the impact is particularly large. The average driving time from Florida to a facility in North Carolina, where abortion is available for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, is more than nine hours, according to data compiled by Middlebury College economics professor Caitlin Myers.
Clinics have opened or expanded in some locations
The restrictions mean clinics closed or stopped offering abortions in some states.
But in the few states where abortion is legal until viability – generally considered to be after 21 weeks of pregnancy – clinics have opened and expanded.
Illinois, Kansas and New Mexico are among the states with the new clinics.
In May 2022, a month before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, there were 799 publicly identified abortion providers in the US. And as of this November, it was 792, according to a count by Myers, who is collecting data on abortion providers.
Myers said some hospitals that have always offered some abortions have begun advertising them. So, they now count as clinics – even if they offer only a few of them.
Lack of access to abortion during emergencies puts patients’ lives at risk
How hospitals handle pregnancy complications, especially those that threaten women’s lives, has emerged as a major issue since Roe was overturned.
President Joe Biden’s administration said hospitals must offer abortions when necessary to prevent organ loss, bleeding or fatal infection, even in states with restrictions. Texas is challenging the administration’s policy and the U.S. Supreme Court this year declined to take it up after the Biden administration sued Idaho.
An Associated Press analysis of federal hospital investigative records found that more than 100,000 pregnant women seeking help in emergency rooms since 2022 were turned away or left unvaccinated.
Complaints included a woman who had a miscarriage in the lobby restroom of a Texas emergency room because the staff refused to see her and a woman who gave birth in her car because a North Carolina hospital couldn’t offer ultrasounds Was. The child later died.
“It’s becoming less safe to be pregnant and seek emergency care in the emergency department,” Dara Kass, an emergency medicine physician and former U.S. Health and Human Services official, told the AP earlier this year.