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A Six-week abortion ban in Florida It has led to a sharp drop in the number of abortions in the state, bucking national trends, a new report shows.
Monthly abortions in Florida have been cut by more than 30% since May's ban on procedures after six weeks of pregnancy, according to a report on sexual and reproductive health by the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports abortion rights. . There were an average of about 5,400 abortions each month in May and June, up from more than 8,000 abortions each month in the first three months of the year.
Nationally, average monthly abortions fell by 7% during that time — a difference of about 7,000 fewer abortions per month — and Florida's reduction accounted for about a third of that decline.
Experts say there are seasonal fertility patterns and some month-to-month fluctuations in miscarriage rates. But according to the data from Guttmacher, the change in Florida was drastic; In other states with no abortions at all, the estimated number of abortions fell 2 percent in May and 9 percent in June.
The tight restrictions in Florida are expected to be rolled back across the state and the wider region. More than 10,000 abortions in the country took place before a more restrictive policy took effect in Florida in May. A key abortion access point In the years since the United States Supreme Court's Dobbs decision struck down federal abortion rights in 2022 for the South.
In the year About 9,000 people will travel out-of-state to get an abortion in Florida by 2023, according to Guttmacher's estimates — many of them from more restrictive states, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia.
Despite recent declines, Guttmacher estimates that there will be more abortions in the U.S. in the first half of 2024 than in the first half of 2023 — and that abortions will continue to decline until 2023. The highest rate in more than ten years last year.
But the abortion landscape continues to change rapidly in the U.S., and it's unclear what kind of system will emerge by the end of the year, said Isaac Madow-Zimet, a data scientist at the Guttmacher Institute.
Many organizations, institutions, and people have been created to support the needs of abortion seekers in the US. “I think the magnitude of the issue is clear in the way that the number of abortions in states is increasing without restrictions. There's been a lot more funding and other methods of care like telehealth, which really speaks to the ways in which people in states can now get care that they couldn't get before. At the same time. Indeed, access is greatly exacerbated in restricted territories.
A month before the six-week ban took effect in April, abortions in Florida were up more than 20 percent on average in the first three months of the year, Guttmacher data show.
According to the new report, “Providers and patients, respectively, made significant efforts to provide and access care prior to the law's implementation.
But the influx of funds that helped overcome new barriers to access and the long-term cost hurdles caused by the Dobbs decision may not be sustainable, Maddow-Zimet said.
Florida is one of the 10 states where voters have at least a chance to decide Future abortion In their state elections this November. But in the two years since the Dobbs decision, changes to abortion policies have become more widespread. confusion Among women in the US.
“It's a very short period of time when people want an abortion. And the pace of legal change can be very slow,” Maddow-Zimet said. “Ballot measures can increase access, but it's too late for people who are pregnant now.”
Due to the lack of federal protections of Roe v. Wade, a growing share of women are choosing to avoid any possibility of becoming pregnant.
The number of women choosing to have their fallopian tubes tied or removed has increased since the Dobbs decision to use permanent contraception — especially in states with abortion bans, he said. Study letter It was published on Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA.
The researchers analyzed millions of medical records through December 2022. The use of Tobel sterilization has increased nationally since the Supreme Court's ruling, and has seen a 3 percent monthly increase in states with abortions.
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Increased use of permanent contraception may affect abortion access, but barriers to such care — including medical, social and economic challenges — must overlap with barriers to abortion, said Amanda Jean Stevenson, assistant professor of sociology and professor of demography. The University of Colorado-Boulder was not involved with the new reports.
“Achieving the reproductive health you need faces the same barriers across the board,” she says, particularly stigma and cost. “So the people who are affected by the barrier are the same people – so the people who are able to sterilize are probably the people who are most likely to get an abortion if they are pregnant.”