According to a recent study, in the majority of states where they were permitted this year, the number of abortions climbed in the first half of 2023.
More than a year following the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, data gathered by the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that advocates for abortion access, paints the clearest picture to date of where people are getting abortions in the United States.
The gains were particularly noticeable in states like Kansas and New Mexico, which border states that forbid abortion, as well as in states like Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, and Washington, where laws protecting abortion rights have been put in place.
From January through June in New Mexico, there were more than three times as many abortions as during the same time period in 2020, which is the most recent year for which the Guttmacher Institute has comparative statistics. Data scientist Isaac Maddow-Zimet at the Guttmacher Institute, who contributed to the study, said that’s a sign that people are traveling across state boundaries to end pregnancies.
“Travel from neighboring places like Texas is probably what is causing the increase in a state like New Mexico the most. We have certainly heard anecdotes to that effect in the past, and the magnitude of this change, in my opinion, supports that, Maddow-Zimet said.
The figures Maddow-Zimet’s team revealed are based on monthly projections from a small number of abortion providers in each state & do not account for self-managed abortions, which are medication abortions carried out outside of clinics, medical offices, or telemedicine settings.
Abortion rate variation, 2020–2023
With regard to percentage growth, New Mexico led the way. The biggest overall rise was in Illinois.
According to the Guttmacher estimates, the number increased by 89% in Colorado in the first six months of this year compared with the first half of 2020, a state where abortion rights are legally protected.
Abortions also increased by 69% in Illinois, a state that has passed laws to protect both those who perform abortions and those who travel to that state for their procedure. Over 26,000 more procedures were carried out in the first half of 2023 than in the same period in 2020, reaching around 44,000.
“I think it’s become even more so,” Maddow-Zimet said, adding that it was already somewhat of a stronghold of access in the area.
The Alamo Women’s Clinic closed its abortion facility in San Antonio following the Dobbs ruling by the Supreme Court and opened facilities in Albuquerque, New Mexico, & Carbondale, Illinois. The chief administrator of the clinics, Andrea Gallegos, reported that business picked up right away at both locations. Each of them sees 400 patients a month, she estimates.
According to her, Texas residents make up the majority of the out-of-state patients that visit the New Mexico facility while a wider range of people visit the Illinois location.
Because of its proximity to so many states that might impose bans, southern Illinois was chosen as the location for the opening, according to Gallegos. Because of that, it’s not unusual for us to see patients in a single day from nine different states.
More than 80% of the patients at the southern Illinois abortion facility Hope facility, according to Michele Landeau, chief operating officer, are from states that forbid or restrict abortion. She noted that about 15% or 20% must travel for 12 hours or longer.
Our volume has drastically grown, according to Landeau. “Unfortunately, not everyone who calls us can be seen by us.”
More than 113,000 abortions were performed in 2020 in Wisconsin, where many medical professionals are reluctant to perform abortions due to an 1849 legislation criminalizing the procedure, as well as the 13 states that have since passed complete abortion prohibitions. According to the Guttmacher Institute, that accounted for approximately 12% of the country’s total that year.
In Texas, there were only 14 abortions reported in the first few months of this year.
Abortion restrictions or bans have also taken effect in Indiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina since June — the most recent data in the Guttmacher report — after being upheld in court. The report does not mention how those actions have affected people.
To ascertain how the number of abortions has changed nationally, including estimates of self-managed abortions, the Guttmacher researchers stated they would require more data. Nevertheless, the number of abortions in the United States increased in 2019 and 2020, and data at the state level indicate that the trend continued in 2021.