The number of clinician-provided abortions rose slightly nationwide in the year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, though abortions dropped significantly in states with bans on the procedure, according to a new analysis.
The latest report from the Society of Family Planning’s WeCount project found that nationally there were 2,200 more surgical and medication abortions during the 12 months from July 2022 to June 2023.
But the report noted the overall increase masks the state-by-state variability that followed the high court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Clinician-provided abortions virtually disappeared in states with bans, while abortion care increased in states where the procedure is legal with fewer restrictions.
In states with total or six-week abortion bans, abortions decreased by a count of nearly 115,000.
States where abortion remained legal beyond six weeks saw a cumulative increase of nearly 117,000 abortions in the 12 months following the Dobbs ruling.
“What actually happened during these 12 months is that abortion access plummeted to zero in some states, while increasing to meet the acute need in others, leading to a complete disruption in the healthcare system and people’s lives,” said Ushma Upadhyay, WeCount co-chair and professor at the University of California, San Francisco.
“Our ability to access safe and effective healthcare should not be contingent upon the state in which we live or our ability to travel for necessary care,” Upadhyay told reporters.
In the 14 states with near-total abortion bans, there have been nearly 95,000 fewer clinician-provided abortions, a 100 percent decrease.
States with the largest increases or surges in volume included Florida and North Carolina, which border states with abortion bans and served as access points for people who travel from other states to get care.
But those numbers could change, as North Carolina recently enacted a 12-week ban with an additional in-person counseling requirement.
A separate analysis released earlier this month showed abortions in North Carolina dropped 31 percent in the month after the state’s 12-week abortion ban took effect.
And Florida is poised to enact a six-week ban if the state Supreme Court upholds the current restrictions.
“The fact that abortions increased overall in the past year shows what happens when abortion access is improved, and some previously unmet need for abortion is met,” said Alison Norris, WeCount co-chair and a professor at the Ohio State University’s College of Public Health.
“At the same time, this increase in abortion access can’t mask the tremendous hardships that people are overcoming to obtain basic healthcare services. And for people who can’t travel, we know that being denied abortion care can have devastating mental, emotional, and economic impacts,” Norris said.
