traveling for abortion

Society for FLaurie Sobel

Law

Abortion opponents are trying to deter people from traveling out of state for care

Thousands of people have left states with abortion bans to access the procedure. Some opponents are targeting the people who help them.

Shefali Luthra
October 12, 2023

More than a year after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion is almost completely outlawed in 15 states. Yet the number of abortions done in the United States – notoriously difficult to calculate — has by some estimates fallen by only about 2,900 procedures per month since Roe fell.

Reproductive health researchers say the ability to travel to other states has played a major role in people’s continued ability to access abortions. Clinics in states such as Florida, Illinois, New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado — all close to states with near-total abortion bans — have reported major increases in the number of patients, with the majority often coming from out of state. In Florida, an estimate from the Society for Family Planning found that the number of abortions performed in-state increased by about 1,384 per month in the first nine months after Roe fell, a jump researchers and Florida clinicians alike attributed to more patients coming from out of state.

Continued: https://19thnews.org/2023/10/abortion-opponents-out-of-state-care/

12.10.2023

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America

Health

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230928-in-divided-us-women-crisscross-country-for-abortion-care

She Sued Tennessee for Denying Her an Abortion. Now She’s Running for Office.

BY CHARLOTTE ALTER
OCTOBER 12, 2023

Allie Phillips never wanted to be a politician, but she had always wanted to be a mom of two. Whenever Phillips asked her 5-year-old daughter, Adalie, what she wanted to be when she grew up, Adalie would say, "A big sister." So when Phillips found out she was pregnant again in Nov. 2022, Adalie was thrilled. "Her eyes got big and her jaw just dropped open," Phillips recalled. "Every night after that, she sang Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star to my belly. She’d kiss my belly every night before bed." Phillips and her husband planned to name the new baby Miley Rose.

But at a routine anatomy scan when she was around 19 weeks pregnant, doctors told Phillips that the fetus had significant problems with its kidney, stomach, bladder, heart, lungs, and brain. These conditions were "not compatible with life outside the womb," a doctor told Phillips. Miley Rose would likely die before birth, and the longer Phillips stayed pregnant, the worse her own health could become. These conditions were "not compatible with life outside the womb," a doctor told Phillips. Miley Rose would likely die before birth, and the longer Phillips stayed pregnant, the worse her own health could become.

Continued: https://time.com/6320148/allie-phillips-abortion-lawsuit-tennessee/

In divided US, women crisscross country for abortion care

28/09/2023

Washington (AFP) – A year after the US Supreme Court abolished nationwide access to abortion care, many American women are settling into a new reality: arranging costly trips to terminate their pregnancies in states where the procedure is still allowed.

Comprehensive national abortion statistics are hard to come by in the United States because data is split between medical facilities and organizations that provide abortion pills by mail. But a recent study indicates a sharp rise in abortions in states that neighbor those which have moved to ban the procedure following the landmark court decision last summer.

28.09.2023

Commentary

Guttmacher Institute

Isaac Maddow-Zimet

National Abortion Federation

Health

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/12/anti-choice-states-arent-satisfied-now-they-want-to-punish-traveling-for-abortions

Anti-choice states aren’t satisfied. Now they want to punish traveling for abortions

A husband who doesn’t want his wife to get an abortion could sue the friend who offered to drive her, according to this legislation’s own architect

Moira Donegan
Tue 12 Sep 2023

How free can any woman be in a country where her right to control her body and family depends on the jurisdiction where she happens to live? Republicans are looking to find out. Over the past few weeks, as Republican officials in anti-choice states seek to make their abortion bans enforceable and compel women into childbirth, a new front has opened up in the abortion wars: roads. The anti-choice movement, through a series of inventive legal theories and cynical legislative maneuvers, is now attacking women’s right to travel.

In a court filing last month, the Alabama attorney general, Steve Marshall, wrote that he believed his office had a right to prosecute those who help women travel across state lines in search of an abortion. The filing comes in a lawsuit from two women’s health clinics and an abortion fund, which sued Marshall after he publicly stated his intention to criminally investigate organizations like theirs, which provide financial and logistical help to pregnant patients seeking to leave the state. In his response, Marshall unequivocally stated that Alabama, which bans all abortions with no rape or incest exemption, views any effort to help women cross state lines as a “criminal conspiracy”.

12.09.2023

Physicians for Reproductive Health

The unconstitutional plan to stop women from traveling out of state for an abortion, explained

The age of travel bans is now upon us.

By Ian Millhiser

Sep 12, 2023

More than a year ago, anti-abortion activists appeared eager to prohibit anyone seeking an abortion in a state where it is banned from traveling to another state where it is legal. Indeed, many lawmakers appeared so eager to enact such travel bans that Justice Brett Kavanaugh, of all people, attempted to cut off these laws before they could be enacted.

“May a State bar a resident of that State from traveling to another State to obtain an abortion?” Kavanaugh asked in his concurring opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), the decision overruling Roe v. Wade. “In my view, the answer is no,” Kavanaugh replied to his own question, “based on the constitutional right to interstate travel.” The Constitution has long been understood to allow US citizens to travel among the states.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/23868962/texas-abortion-travel-ban-unconstitutional

Abortions have increased significantly in states that border those with bans, new analysis finds

By Deidre McPhillips, CNN
Thu September 7, 2023

Abortions have increased substantially in most states where they remain legal post-Dobbs, according to a new analysis. The increases have been particularly significant in states bordering others with bans, suggesting widespread travel for care.

The Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health that supports abortion rights, launched a new dashboard Thursday that estimates the number of abortions provided in the United States each month. The estimates are based on a regular survey of a core set of providers and broadened to the state level using a model that also factors in historical trends. The latest findings compare the number of abortions provided in the first half of 2023 to a comparable period in 2020.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/health/abortion-state-borders-guttmacher/index.html

07.09.2023

Society of Family Planning

abortion increases in legal states

Law

New State Abortion Data Indicate Widespread Travel for Care

Monthly Abortion Provision Study Findings Validate Efforts to Strengthen Abortion Protections

Isaac Maddow-Zimet, Kelly Baden, Rachel K. Jones, Isabel DoCampo, Jesse Philbin – Guttmacher Institute
September 7, 2023

In a post-Roe landscape, each state’s abortion policy reaches far beyond that state’s borders—in significant part because many people seeking abortion are proving highly motivated to travel to get the care they need in the face of abortion bans. Since June 2022, even as many states have banned abortion, many others have enacted measures to protect and expand abortion access. These measures have included repealing burdensome restrictions, dedicating funding for clinic and support infrastructure, enacting shield laws and enshrining abortion rights in their constitutions. Such policies are vitally important, given the increased demand for abortion in these states.

Estimates of the number of abortions provided within the formal US health care system from Guttmacher’s new Monthly Abortion Provision Study validate these efforts to shore up access in states that support abortion rights and highlight the need for more such protections. The study has documented substantial increases in abortions in many states bordering those where abortion has been banned, indicating that significant numbers of residents of states with abortion bans are traveling to neighboring states for abortion care. These findings indicate that all aspects of the abortion infrastructure—including facilities, funds and support networks—require sustained support to serve increased patient caseloads.

Continued: https://www.guttmacher.org/2023/09/new-state-abortion-data-indicate-widespread-travel-care

07.09.2023

Research

Guttmacher Institute

Monthly Abortion Provision Study