Abortions drop 96% in strictest states since end of Roe
Iyears the six months that have passed since the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, there have been 5,377 fewer abortions on average per month, according to a new report.
The average number of layoffs from July to December was 77,073, down 7% from the average for April and May, according to a Tuesday report of the Family Planning Society. In the states with the strictest restrictions – Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin – there were 265 abortions per month on average from July to December. That’s a 96% drop from April and May.
National abortion numbers have not returned to levels seen immediately before the June ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which removed constitutional protections for abortion. The average American now lives 275 miles far from an abortion center than before the ruling, with Blacks, Indigenous peoples and other people of color experiencing the largest increases in commuting time.
Patients increasingly rely on telehealth services for abortion care. In April, virtual care accounted for 4% of all abortions; in December, it was 11%, according to the report.
A legal battle over mifepristone, also known as the abortion pill, jeopardizes the future of telehealth. Two conflicting rulings on the legality and availability of Drugswhich is used in medical abortions, means that an appeal court will have to intervene and the fight against drugs will probably end up in the Supreme Court.
More must-reads from TIME
