Legal abortions fell 6% in six months after Supreme Court overturned Roe

Abortion
Legal abortions fell 6% in six months after Supreme Court overturned Roe
Abortion
Legal abortions fell 6% in six months after Supreme Court overturned Roe
Roe V Wade
Pat Thompson displayed a sign supporting Roe v. Wade at a rally, held by Planned Parenthood, commemorating the 45th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision at the Capitol Monday, Jan. 22, 2018, in Sacramento, Calif. The 1973 landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court affirmed a woman’s right to have an abortion.

Legal
abortions
in the United States dropped more than 6% in the six months after the
Supreme Court
overturned
Roe v. Wade
,
a testament to the new rules and regulations that now vary from state to state.

A new report released by the Society of Family Planning, called the “#WeCount” report, determined that there were 32,260 fewer abortions from July to December 2022 when compared to data taken in April and May. In the months post-Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade in June, there were an average of 5,377 fewer abortions per month.


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Telehealth abortions provided through virtual clinics have increased every month since pre-Dobbs in April, and by December, the appointments represented 9% of all abortions across the six months post-Dobbs.

The organization found that the effect of the Dobbs decision is based on state abortion policies. States with bans in place witnessed a total of 43,410 fewer people cumulatively having abortions. On the other side, states that permitted abortion access following the end of Roe v. Wade saw a total of 11,150 more people who had abortions.

By Dec. 31, 13 states had banned abortion with almost no exceptions, and Georgia imposed a six-week ban. In Georgia, the number of abortions decreased by 40%, according to the report.

Florida saw 1,200 more abortions in the months post-Dobbs because state law currently permits abortions up to 15 weeks. The Sunshine State is inching closer to a six-week ban after the state Senate
passed the legislation
, sending it to the House, where it is also expected to pass, and eventually Gov.
Ron DeSantis’s
(R-FL) desk, where he is likely to sign it.

The Dobbs decision also pushed thousands of women to travel long distances to obtain abortions if their home states had restrictions. The report showed that the number of abortions increased significantly in states that have solidified abortion access and are located near states with bans, the largest increases occurring in Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina.

Abortions declined significantly in places where the courts overturned proposed bans, such as Arizona and Ohio.

Several clinics in Arizona, which allows abortions up to 15 weeks, temporarily shut down while the court determined whether the near total ban that
predated Arizona’s statehood
could be enforced. Eventually, the court ruled that the 15-week ban overruled the near-total ban and
went into effect
in December 2022. The number of abortions per month in Arizona dropped 85% to 230 between April and July and shot back up to 870 by December, according to the report.


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In Ohio, a six-week ban went into effect after the Dobbs decision. In that time, the number of abortions dropped 62% from before Dobbs to 790. However, a judge halted the six-week ban, and abortions are now legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.

The number of abortions now sits at over 1,400 per month. Pro-abortion activists in Ohio created a committee in December to explore putting
abortion on the ballot
, and in March, the Ohio Ballot Board
certified the language
of the proposed ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion in the state constitution.

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