Women forced to undertake painful and expensive journeys to obtain abortions, a number of interruptions of pregnancy that has exploded in several states: this is the panorama that emerges in USA since the elimination of the constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
Just over a year after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade, who since 1973 had protected access to abortion at the federal level, his authorization once again became a matter for the states.
One part, dominated by Republicans, decided to strongly restrict the right to abortion, or even ban it completely. Another, mostly Democratic, on the contrary, increased protections for this practice.
Knowing how the total number of abortions has evolved since the summer of 2022 is extremely complicated, especially considering that the data is distributed between medical establishments and organizations that supply abortion pills by mail.
But a first observation is essential: the number of abortions has increased, even skyrocketed, in several states that share a border with those that have banned them, according to an analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, a major research center that defends the right of abortions. women to abort.
It is possible to deduce “that a significant number of residents of states where abortion is prohibited travel to neighboring states to obtain abortions,” explains the organization, which is based on samples from the official health system (hospitals, clinics, doctors’ offices).
Pills by mail
The figures from the Guttmacher Institute are surprising. New Mexico saw an increase in 220% in abortions compared to 2020. This southwestern state, which has introduced protections against abortion, borders Texas and Oklahoma, which have banned it, except in exceptional cases.
The same goes for Illinois, a neighbor of Indiana and Missouri, which saw an increase in 69%, and Colorado (+89%), surrounded by restrictive Wyoming, Utah, Kansas and Nebraska.
This trend was confirmed by the National Abortion Federation. “Over the past year, we have seen more people than ever travel for access” to abortion, one of its managers, Veronica Jones, explained in June.
The organization says that from July 2022 to May 2023 it helped finance 982 trips by plane, train or bus, an increase of 235% Compared to the same period of the previous year.
When there is no possibility of travel, women manage to obtain abortion pills purchased in other states or abroad.
In late 2022, a study published in the scientific journal JAMA indicated that requests from American women to have abortion pills mailed to them from abroad had increased significantly.
Since then, several states, such as New York and Massachusetts, have adopted so-called laws “shield”, to protect from persecution and extradition health professionals who live in their homes and send these pills to states where abortion is prohibited.
Linda Prine is a doctor involved in the activist organization Aid Access. She practices her profession in New York, which adopted her legislation “shield” in June. Over the next month, Aid Access sent pills to 3,500 people living in states where abortion is prohibited. Since then, the numbers have doubled and continue to rise, Prine told AFP.
Increase in travel abortions
In this changing landscape, experts speak cautiously. Isaac Maddow-Zimet, researcher at the Guttmacher Institute, specifies that the increase in the number of abortions in several states began to be observed in 2019. And that the restriction of abortion in Texas (30 million inhabitants) in 2021 had a very important impact on travel in this state.
It is also possible, he tells AFP, that the expansion of access to abortion in some states, for example in rural areas, contributes to this increase.
But “The magnitude of the increase is such that we are almost certain it is due to increased travel” from states where abortion is restricted or prohibited, he adds.
Alison Norris, a professor at Ohio State University and co-chair of #WeCount, a research project that collects data from abortion centers, also believes the increases are due in part to “the people who have been able to overcome barriers and manage to travel to another state.”
Due to this reality, the increase in abortions should not hide the difficulties these women face, the two experts insist. Pay for travel and/or accommodation, request time off from work, arrange childcare, says Maddow-Zimet. These trips represent a true “logistical and financial burden”.
Source: AFP
Source: Gestion
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