Abortions are up in the US. It's a complicated picture as women turn to pills, travel
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Abortion has become slightly more common despite bans or deep restrictions in most Republican-controlled states, and the legal and political fights over its future are not over yet. It's now been two and a half years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to implement bans.
The policies and their impact have been in flux ever since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Here's a look at data on where things stand:. Abortions are slightly more common now than before Dobbs. Overturning Roe and enforcing abortion bans has changed how woman obtain abortions in the U.S.
But one thing it hasn't done is put a dent in the number of abortions being obtained. There have been slightly more monthly abortions across the country recently than there were in the months leading up to the June 2022 ruling, even as the number in states with bans dropped to near zero.
“Abortion bans don’t actually prevent abortions from happening,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a public health social scientist at the University of California San Francisco. But, she said, they do change care. For women in some states, there are major obstacles to getting abortions — and advocates say that low-income, minority and immigrant women are least likely to be able to get them when they want.
