New data from the Guttmacher Institute shows that since January of last year, more than 170,000 people have moved out of state to get an abortion. This number is emphasized by the fact that it is getting harder and harder to get care in some states.
According to the figures, more than 15% of the 1.25 million abortions performed by doctors between 2023 and March of this year happened outside of California. That number has grown by more than twice as much since 2020.
Guttmacher data scientist Isaac Maddow-Zimet said in a statement, “Traveling for abortion care requires people to overcome huge financial and logistical barriers. Our findings show just how far people will travel to get the care they want and deserve.”
“Abortion patients and providers are incredibly strong, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that this is neither normal nor acceptable,” he said. “Someone shouldn’t have to go hundreds or even thousands of miles to get basic medical care.”
Fourteen states have almost full bans on abortion. This happened quickly after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in 2022, which overturned a federal rule that said everyone had to be able to get an abortion.
Most of the abortions in Kansas and New Mexico, two states that are close to states that recently passed almost complete bans on abortion, were done on women from other states. One of the strictest abortion laws in the country is in Texas.
Compared to its neighbors until earlier this year, Florida has also been a place where getting an abortion has been pretty easy. There are no abortions in the state after six weeks as of May.
It’s clear from the state of residence data that this policy change will be terrible not only for Floridians but also for the thousands of other people who would have gone there to get care but couldn’t in their home states, Guttmacher Vice President Kelly Baden said of Florida’s ban. “Once more, we see that the abortion laws of one state affect thousands of people outside that state’s borders.”
There may be political effects of the new bans as well. In November, there will be referendums on abortion rights in several states, including Florida. Democrats had thought that these referendums would get more people to the polls.
The center also found that about two-thirds of the one million abortions were done with medicine. They were facing a federal case that could have stopped that method until last week when the Supreme Court said that the federal government can put limits on some abortion drugs.
Source: The Hill
