Oregon and Washington clinics have reported an uptick in abortion care provided in the months since the June 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed states to make their own abortion laws. In response, 13 states banned abortion with very few exceptions and several others greatly restricted it.
Clinics in Oregon, where abortion remains legal, have reported 132 more abortions per month since the Dobbs decision than in the months immediately before it. The uptick in abortion care in Washington, which also continues to protect abortion, has been 138 per month.
Abortions in Oregon hovered around 1,000 per month between June and December 2022, according to data gathered from clinical abortion providers for #WeCount, a time-limited study of abortion provision in post-Dobbs America. The study is conducted by the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit focused on abortion and contraception science. The study looks at the number of abortions provided in the months immediately preceding the decision and compares them to the months after it. The most current data available is through December 2022.
There have been fewer than 10 abortions per month in Idaho since August, according to the #WeCount data. Before a near-total ban went into effect there, clinicians in Idaho reported providing 150 to 190 abortions per month.
Researchers estimate that there have been 32,260 fewer abortions provided to Americans in the months after the Dobbs decision than there would have been when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. That accounts only for abortions performed under the guidance of a medical provider. It does not count “self-managed” abortions, which a person obtains — either with pills or surgically — without the supervision of a medical professional.
The decline in clinician-provided abortion care has come from states with full abortion bans and from states with increased restrictions. States that allow abortion, like Oregon and Washington, have provided more abortions on average, per month, since June than they did before the decision. The largest increases have been in populous states that border states with bans, including Florida and Illinois.
Copyright 2023 Oregon Public Broadcasting.
