KUALA LUMPUR, August 8 — Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the number of abortions in the United States increased, even as 14 states have banned abortion completely, according to the most recent #WeCount report released yesterday.
For the first time since #WeCount began, the national monthly total of abortions exceeded 100,000 in January of 2024. The #WeCount report found between 94,670 and 102,350 abortions monthly between January to March 2024, with a monthly average of 98,990.
#WeCount is a national abortion reporting effort in the US by the Society of Family Planning, that aims to measure monthly abortion utilisation, nationally and by state, following the Dobbs v Jackson US Supreme Court decision.
On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court issued its ruling on the Dobbs v Jackson case, effectively overturning federal protections on abortion access, and giving way to state restrictions on abortion access across the country.
The elevated volume of abortion demonstrates the continued and growing need for abortion care across the country, and has been driven by an expansion of telehealth abortion care.
“While the volume of abortions has increased, we know that this isn’t the full story,” said Alison Norris, #WeCount co-chair and professor at The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health and co-principal investigator of the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network.
“Even as we see the increase in abortion volume nationally, the burden on an individual living in a state with an abortion ban is enormous, especially if they need in-person abortion care.”
Provision of abortion via telehealth continues to increase, with telehealth making up a larger proportion of the abortion care landscape than ever before.
From January to March 2024, there were about 19,700 telehealth abortions per month, including those provided by brick-and-mortar clinics, virtual-only clinics, and under shield law protections to states with bans on abortion or telehealth.
Telehealth abortions represent 20 per cent of all abortions, nationally.
“Telehealth abortion is making a critical difference for people seeking abortion care in this increasingly restrictive environment,” said Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, #WeCount Co-Chair and professor at the University of California, San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH).
“Telehealth also eases the surges and cuts down on wait times at abortion clinics providing in-person abortion care, which continues to be a critical route to abortion access, accounting for 80 per cent of all abortions.”
Through March 2024, six states enacted shield laws that provide legal protections to clinicians who offer abortion care via telehealth to people in states that have abortion or telehealth bans. Telehealth abortions provided under shield laws averaged 9,200 per month from January to March 2024.
In the nine months from July 2023 to March 2024, over 65,000 people in states with total or six-week bans and states with telehealth restrictions have accessed medication abortion provided under shield laws.
“Abortion care provided via telemedicine by providers, operating under shield law protections, are a lifeline for women, transgender men, and gender non-binary individuals in states with abortion bans, whose next best option may be to travel hundreds of miles to reach an abortion clinic,” said Dr Angel Foster, co-founder of The Massachusetts Abortion Access Project (The MAP).
“By providing safe, effective, FDA-approved medications to patients in all 50 states, we’re doing what we can to mitigate the Dobbs decision’s tremendous damage to abortion seekers’ reproductive health and autonomy.”
The states with the largest average number of abortions per month during January to March 2024 included California, New York, Illinois, Florida, and New Jersey.
The large number of abortions provided in Florida is noteworthy given the new law banning abortion after six weeks gestation, enacted May 1, 2024.
In the 14 states with abortion bans, abortions provided under shield laws and the efforts of those helping abortion patients travel to other states for care have permitted many to access abortion care.
However, many others have been forced to carry a pregnancy to term. The states with the greatest cumulative declines in abortion volume over 21 months include Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama.
#WeCount data include clinician-provided abortions, defined as medication or procedural abortions completed by a licensed clinician in a clinic, private medical office, hospital, or virtual-only clinic in the US known to offer abortion care during the period of study.
The report does not reflect any self-managed abortions, defined as any attempt to end a pregnancy outside the formal health care system.
