The first attempt to do a countrywide count of abortions after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision found that in the first two months following the decision, legal abortions decreased by more than 10,000, or nearly 6%, throughout the country.
According to thorough calculations done by a group of academics and abortion providers, legal abortions in 13 states—mostly in the South—banned or severely limited abortion during those months, with the number of abortions performed there falling to almost zero.
The number of legal abortions decreased by one-third in the nine additional states that imposed significant new abortion restrictions. On average, there were 22,000 fewer abortions in states with bans and limitations in July and August compared to the pre-decision baseline month of April.
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The number of abortions climbed by around 12,000, or 11%, in states where the procedure remained legal. That implies that almost 50% of women who were unable to obtain abortions in states with laws went to another state to do so, as reported by The New York Times.
However, despite such increases, it appears that the new state legislation have prohibited thousands of abortions.
This data comes from WeCount, a new organisation run by the Society of Family Planning, an organisation that backs abortion rights. From clinics, hospitals, and telemedicine providers all around the United States, it is gathering statistics on abortions.
It gathered comprehensive data on abortions from 79% of the country’s abortion providers, who were in charge of 82% of all abortions prior to the court’s Dobbs ruling. To approximate the missing data, researchers made changes based on state statistics and historical patterns.
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It normally takes years to compile and publish comprehensive data on the number of abortions carried out in the United States. WeCount was developed to deliver more real-time data from a wider range of suppliers.
WeCount also discovered that the number of abortions performed nationwide increased in the two months following the Supreme Court’s draught decision’s leak but before Roe was overturned. This finding may be a sign that some pregnant women were getting abortions earlier than they otherwise would have or that clinics were increasing their capacity in anticipation of bans.
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