The state response to
Roe v. Wade
being
overturned
created an environment where unlikely anti-abortion states became “destinations” for
abortion
seekers from states that made it illegal.
The decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which returned the regulation of abortion to state governments, created a legal patchwork that resulted in precipitous declines for abortion in some states and increases in nearby states that still permitted the procedure.
NORTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR AFFIRMS STATE’S NEAR-TOTAL ABORTION BAN
In the South, where abortion bans and the subsequent declines were most prominent, some states like Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina became “abortion destinations” after Dobbs was handed down.
Vicki Ringer, South Atlantic Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood,
said
: “When you have an abortion ban in any state, it does not stop abortion; it just changes where it happens.”
The phenomenon became a point of contention in the states that saw spikes.
While Republican state leaders have “prioritized the human rights fight where they live,” SBA Pro-Life America director of state public affairs Kelsey Pritchard told the Washington Examiner, “Some of these states have become abortion destinations, and a lot of them don’t want to be that or don’t want to be known as that.”
Florida and North Carolina both instituted relatively immediate restrictions, as Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a 15-week ban, and North Carolina had a 20-week ban unblocked after the overturn of Roe. However, their restrictions were still more permissive than their neighbors that sought total or near-total bans. This year, DeSantis signed a heartbeat bill, restricting abortion to around six weeks, that is poised to go into effect after the Sunshine State’s supreme court decides on the 15-week ban.
Despite its 15-week ban, Florida saw abortion numbers spike the most of any state in the six months post-Dobbs, seeing 7,190 more abortions — a 34% increase — according to Society for Family Planning
data
.
North Carolina and South Carolina became “abortion destinations” at different times, and for different reasons.
After North Carolina’s legal block was lifted, its 20-week gestational restriction was able to take effect. Compared to neighboring states, however, North Carolina was still more permissive and saw a 27% increase.
While 2022 data shows South Carolina with a decrease in abortion, the state’s supreme court blocked a heartbeat bill in early 2023, returning the Palmetto State to its Roe-era abortion regulations and making it the most permissive state for abortion in the South in 2023.
According to the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control
data
, 47% of abortion-seekers from January to March 2023 were from out-of-state. Prior to Dobbs, South Carolina’s out-of-state abortion seekers made up 4% to 6% of the state’s abortions per month.
The state
failed to pass
a bill to ban abortion on April 27. That failure represents the third time similar measures have not passed in its Republican-majority Senate, with the chamber’s five women filibustering the bill.
“Victory over great injustices takes time, patience, and persistence. We’ve come so far as a nation in the last year with tens of thousands of lives saved through state laws, and, in time, South Carolina will too enact protections for innocent unborn children that represent the will of the people,” Pritchard told the Washington Examiner. “Pro-life policymakers know that carrying the cause for life is the human rights battle of today, and they won’t stop until the laws reflect the science of gestational development and the compassionate will of South Carolinians.”
With Florida’s heartbeat bill likely to take effect, South Carolina will remain the most permissive state in the South and is poised to see an even greater spike in abortions once Florida is off the map.
Florida Democrats lament the change.
“First off — let me be clear: in Florida, you can still get an abortion until 15 weeks of pregnancy,” Florida Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book (D) told the Washington Examiner. “The six-week ban is NOT in effect yet — that will be up to the Supreme Court to decide whether the bans violate the right to privacy in the Florida Constitution.
Book, who was arrested alongside Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried during a protest of the heartbeat bill, continued: “Once we saw the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the trigger bans that followed, we knew it would only be a matter of time before conservative-led states with reasonable abortion laws were emboldened to go further — ignoring medicine and science, women and their doctors.
“Florida has been a sanctuary abortion state for medical refugees living in the repressive Southeast; we know this is one of the reasons access to abortion in Florida has been dangerously and unconstitutionally banned at 6 weeks, which is, devastatingly, tantamount to a total ban.”
In the six months after the official Dobbs decision, multiple states enforced bans with varying levels of restriction. Some states also expand their abortion permissiveness.
From July to December 2022, there were 32,260 fewer abortions in the United States, according to SFP. Taking April through May 2022 as a baseline rate of abortion, the national abortion rate in the latter half of 2022 dropped from 13.2 per 1,000 women to 12.3 per 1,000 women.
In regions of the country where the most restrictive bans exist, states with the bans saw close to 100% decreases in abortion, whereas neighboring states that still allowed abortion experienced spikes, often from interstate travel.
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States with the biggest spikes in abortion were not near the West Coast or Northeast, but rather those geographically close to the most restrictive states.
The phenomenon maintains in the Midwest as well, with Illinois, Colorado, and Michigan seeing spikes in abortions while being surrounded by states with bans or restrictions.
