The Fall Of Roe Will Hurt Abortion Access In Blue States, Too

Days after the fall of Roe v. Wade, the country has yet to feel the full impact of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn nearly 50 years of precedent. This moment is full of confusion, anger and misinformation, but one thing is inevitable: The end of Roe will hurt the entire country, even states where abortion remains legal.

Trigger laws are taking effect across the U.S., and abortion is set to become illegal in at least 22 states. But Americans will still need that care, even as access is cut dramatically.

“It will not just be a ripple effect. It will be a tsunami effect,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health.

The demand for abortion has increased in the past few years, according to a recent report from the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization. After decades of decline in abortion care, there was an 8% increase in abortions performed between 2017 and 2020. And at least 202 abortion clinics ― just over a quarter of all the facilities in the country ― are eventually expected to close due to the repeal of Roe, according to a report published by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, a leading research group.

Some people in states where abortion is illegal will be able to overcome the necessary hurdles, including paying for transportation and lodging and taking time off from work, to travel to get an abortion. But this, in turn, will result in a massive surge in patients in blue states.

The country already witnessed this after Texas passed its six-week abortion ban in September. Surrounding states were inundated with abortion patients from Texas, creating longer wait times to see a physician. Most patients seeking care outside of Texas and in surrounding states had to wait three to four weeks to get an appointment for medication abortion, and sometimes longer for people who needed a procedural abortion. One Oklahoma abortion provider told HuffPost in November that 75% of his patients were from Texas.

“The reality is that this is going to mean that anyone who needs abortion care is probably going to be pushed further into their pregnancies, because the ability to get an appointment will be further out and further out as the states where [abortion] is accessible and available try to absorb the needs coming from other states,” Miller said.

And pushing people further into unwanted pregnancies ― whether they’re traveling out of state or they live in a state that…