In the Six Months Following Supreme Court’s Decision to Overturn Roe Legal Abortions Dropped 6%
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 have decreased by over 6% in the six months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. This drop is due to the new rules and regulations that now vary from state to state, according to a new report by the Society of Family Planning, called “#WeCount”. The report showed that between July and December 2022, there were 32,260 fewer abortions 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 impact 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, while states that permitted abortion access following the end of Roe v. Wade saw a total of 11,150 more people who had abortions.
As of December 31, 2022, 13 states had banned abortion with almost no exceptions. Georgia imposed a six-week ban, resulting in a 40% decrease in the number of abortions, according to the report. Meanwhile, Florida saw 1,200 more abortions in the months post-Dobbs since state law currently permits abortions up to 15 weeks. The state Senate passed legislation for a six-week ban, which is also expected to pass in the House and eventually reach Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk.
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, with the largest increases in Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina. Simultaneously, abortions declined significantly in states where the courts overturned proposed bans, such as Arizona and Ohio.
Several clinics in Arizona temporarily shut down while the court determined whether the near-total ban that predates statehood restrictions could be enforced. Eventually, the court ruled that the 15-week ban overruled the near-total ban and went into effect in December 2022. Accordingly, the number of abortions per month in Arizona dropped 85% to 230 between April and July and then increased to 870 by December. In Ohio, a six-week ban went into effect after the Dobbs decision, leading to a 62% drop in the number of abortions from pre-Dobbs to 790. However, a judge halted the six-week ban, and abortions are now legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, with over 1,400 abortions 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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