More than 171,000 patients traveled out of state to get abortion care last year, according to the latest data from the Guttmacher Institute, highlighting the widespread impact of state abortion bans put into place in the wake of the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Interstate travel for abortion care has more than doubled since 2019, when 73,100 patients traveled across state lines for abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute’s Monthly Abortion Policy Research Project, which estimates the number of abortions in states without total bans between January 2023 and March of this year.
The project found that more than 1 million physician-assisted abortions were performed in 2023. Of those, 171,300 people traveled out of state to receive an abortion, according to the data.
“What’s surprising about this new data is how often people travel across multiple state lines to receive abortion care,” Isaac Madow Zimet, a data scientist and project lead at Gutmacher, said in a statement Thursday. “Traveling to receive abortion care requires individuals to overcome enormous financial and logistical barriers. Our findings show the great lengths people will travel to get the care they want and deserve.”
The new data reveals a trend of patients, primarily from southern states with stricter abortion laws, traveling across multiple state lines to receive abortion procedures and fill prescriptions for the medication. According to the Guttmacher Institute, until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, patients would travel to receive abortion care due to legal barriers and the availability of medical providers within their state.
But the big increase in 2023 is the result of abortion bans and restrictions rapidly implemented by states after the Supreme Court ruling, the Guttmacher Institute said, forcing patients to travel long distances for abortion care because they can’t get it in their home states.
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Abortion laws “affect thousands of people across state lines”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the number of patients traveling out of state for abortion care is “always particularly high” in states with restrictions.
“However, historically, many people traveling from more restrictive states were traveling to states that now have outright abortion bans,” the Guttmacher Institute said in a news release. “For example, in 2020, more than 800 Louisiana residents traveled to Texas to receive abortion care, but were no longer able to do so in 2022 due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In 2023, more than 3,500 Louisiana residents traveled across multiple states to receive care in places like Florida, Illinois and Georgia.”
The data showed that most patients from states with stricter policies traveled to the nearest or neighboring state that allowed abortion, but patients from southern states with the most restrictive laws compared to the rest of the country had to travel across multiple state lines to receive care.
The data showed that Texas was the state from which the largest number of patients left for abortion care, with the majority — more than 14,000 — heading to New Mexico, but thousands more crossing multiple state lines to access abortion care.
The data showed that Illinois was the state with the most travel for abortion care, with approximately 37,300 people from 16 states traveling there to receive abortions.
Kelly Burden, vice president of public policy at the Guttmacher Institute, said Florida played a key role in “maintaining a certain level of abortion access in the Southeast” last year, with more than 85,000 abortions performed in the state in 2023.
But that number is expected to fall following Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which went into effect in May. Currently, the closest state to offer abortion care after six weeks of pregnancy is North Carolina, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“Data from home states makes it clear that this policy change would be devastating not only for Floridians, but for the thousands of people who would have traveled to Florida after being denied medical care in their home states,” Baden said in a statement. “It is clear once again that state abortion policies affect thousands of people outside of our state.”
States with near-total abortion bans
As of June, 14 states had near-total bans on abortion, with limited exceptions such as when the parent’s life is at risk, rape, incest, or fetal abnormalities. These states include Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia.
Missouri bans abortion in almost all cases except for medical emergencies, including cases of rape and incest.
Last April, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum signed into law one of the nation’s most restrictive abortion bills, allowing abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with exceptions up to six weeks into a pregnancy only in cases of rape, incest or medical emergencies.
Oklahoma bans abortion in almost all cases, with exceptions for rape and incest. In 2023, the state Supreme Court allowed abortion only in cases where the parent’s life is at risk.
Contributor: Cy Neff, USA TODAY
