Fewer People Crossing State Lines for Abortions

Fewer people crossed state lines to obtain abortions in 2024 than a year earlier, a new survey has found. The Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, estimates in a report released Tuesday that the overall number of clinician-provided abortions in states where it's legal rose by less than 1% from 2023 to 2024, per the AP. But the number of people crossing state lines for abortions dropped by about 9%. The report, based on a monthly survey of providers, is the latest look at how the abortion landscape in the US has evolved since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022.

• Guttmacher estimates there were 1.04 million abortions in 2024, up about 1% from its total the previous year.
• The number of people crossing state lines for abortions dropped to about 155,000 from nearly 170,000.
• The year-to-year impact varies by state. For instance, about 1 in 8 abortions in Florida in the first half of 2023 were provided to people coming from out of state. By the second half of 2024—when a ban on abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy took effect—only about 1 in 50 were for people from another state. More people traveled to states including Virginia and New York after the Florida law took hold.
• Guttmacher's tally does not capture self-managed abortions such as people obtaining abortion pills from community networks, foreign pharmacies, or through telehealth from medical providers in states that have laws intended to protect those who send pills into places with bans. There's a court battle over the constitutionality of such laws.
• Multiple studies have found that the total number of abortions in the US has risen since Dobbs, despite some states implementing bans. Twelve states currently enforce abortion bans with limited exceptions at all stages of pregnancy. Four more have bans that kick in after about six weeks, which is before many women know they're pregnant.
• Another survey found that the number of telehealth pills being sent into states with bans has been growing and accounted for about 1 in 10 abortions in the US by the summer of 2024.

(More abortion debate stories.)