It’s been nearly one year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion via the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health decision. In the months since, abortion access has been mostly banned in 14 states, stringent gestational limits have been put in place in several others, and the approval of medication abortion has been challenged in the federal courts.
Such policies have left both patients and providers scrambling to navigate harsh new restrictions and penalties. For many patients, these policies have meant traveling out of state, incurring serious risks to their own health, and in some cases, carrying unwanted pregnancies to term. For providers, the end of Roe has meant fears of being punished for providing abortions, possible discipline from state medical boards, and, in states where abortion remains legal, an influx of patients from other places.
“We hear stories of doctors who are afraid to provide care, who don’t know what the legal implications might be,” says Morgan Hopkins, the president of All Above All, a reproductive rights advocacy group. “We hear the same thing from patients, confusion about what the law might be, and needing to travel.”
Overall, Dobbs has made it harder for people to obtain an abortion in many states. Here’s a look at how a year of abortion restrictions have affected people’s lives, by the numbers:
- Over 25 million women between the ages of 15 to 44 live in states with new abortion bans or restrictions post-Dobbs, meaning 40 percent of American women in that age group have limited or no access to an abortion, according to PBS.
The impact of such policies is substantial: Data from the Society of Family Planning showed that the number of legal abortions went down 6 percent in the six months following the Dobbs decision compared to the months prior, amounting to more than 32,000 fewer legal abortions nationwide.
Those statistics suggest that some women likely…
Read the full article here
