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In the year after the Supreme Court ended the constitutional right to abortion, something unexpected happened: The total number of legal abortions in the United States did not fall. Instead, it appeared to increase slightly, by about 0.2 percent, according to the first full-year count of abortions provided nationwide. This finding came despite the fact that 14 states banned all abortions, and seven imposed new limits on them. Even as those restrictions reduced the legal abortion rate to near zero in some states, there were large increases in places where abortions remained legal. Researchers said they were driven by the expansion of telemedicine for mail-order abortion pills, increased options and assistance for women who traveled, and a surge of publicity about ways to get abortions. (Miller and Sanger-Katz, 10/24)

While it has become much harder since the end of Roe to obtain an abortion in states with newly enacted bans, it actually appears to have become easier in many other states, thanks to increased attention and resources. Abortion funds, nonprofits that help finance abortions and logistics associated with them, have raised millions to help lower-income women pay for procedures and travel, while new clinics have opened in states such as Illinois and New Mexico that have become major destinations for women traveling from other states. (Kusisto and Calfas, 10/24)

But the report noted the overall increase masks the state-by-state variability that followed the high court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision. Clinician-provided abortions virtually disappeared in states with bans, while abortion care increased in states where the procedure is legal with fewer restrictions. In states with total or six-week abortion bans, abortions decreased by a count of nearly 115,000.States where abortion remained legal beyond six weeks saw a cumulative increase of nearly 117,000 abortions in the 12 months following the Dobbs ruling. (Weixel, 10/24)

#WeCount, the Society for Family Planning's ongoing tally of abortions in the U.S., indicates the abortion rate has remained relatively steady, but people are traveling to get the procedure. (Simmons-Duffin, 10/25)

A. wanted a cheeseburger and to go home. She had made the three-hour trip from Indianapolis to Chicago a day earlier and had been at the hospital since 6:30 a.m., with an empty stomach, waiting to be taken into an operating room to have an abortion. It was her second trip to Chicago in two weeks, and the third time she had tried to end her pregnancy. She ordered abortion pills online in July, but they were ineffective. A few weeks later, after Indiana enacted a total ban on abortion, she made an appointment at a clinic in Chicago. But an ultrasound revealed that her placenta was growing abnormally, increasing the risk of bleeding. She was told she would need to have the procedure done at a hospital instead. (McCann, 10/23)