Women are Traveling to Other States for Secret Abortions Up to Birth

Earlier this month, a study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. It was called “Patient-Reported Experiences of Abortion Travel.” Researchers interviewed patients who traveled to Illinois for abortions.

In Illinois, abortion is available without any restrictions until viability. After viability, it is legal if any doctor, including the one committing the abortion, states that it’s necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s life or health.

Illinois law defines “health” as “all factors that are relevant to the patient’s health and well-being, including, but not limited to, physical, emotional, psychological and familial health and age.”

This is such a broad definition that just about any abortion could be justified as being done to protect a pregnant woman’s health; all that is required is for the abortionist to say that the abortion would relieve emotional distress. As far as I know, an abortionist’s “judgment” has never been questioned in Illinois.

For all intents and purposes, then, abortion is legal through all nine months of pregnancy in Illinois, albeit sometimes requiring some extra paperwork. Overview of the Study

For the study, researchers interviewed 208 people who had abortions at two different (unnamed) abortion facilities in Illinois. The largest share of abortion travelers, 36%, came from Indiana, followed by Tennessee (about 24%) and Mississippi (just under 10%).

Other study participants came from Kentucky, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Iowa, Texas, Florida, and Michigan.

Funding for the study was provided by The Society of Family Planning, a pro-abortion organization. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the researchers criticized pro-life laws, calling them “the biggest barrier to care,” and claiming they caused the “need” for abortion-seekers to endure traveling great distances, as though they had no choice but to have an abortion.

Considering the study’s funding, then, it’s surprising how revealing the interviews were. Many of the post-abortive participants said things that showed how traumatic abortion can be.

According to the researchers, all participants claimed to have “some level of family and/or partner support.” “Support” seemed defined as supporting the choice for abortion. However, the study noted that 133 of the participants, 64%, said they were keeping their abortions secret from their entire family.

Abortion is frown[ed] upon a lot in Mississippi. So I just didn’t say anything [to anyone]. My mom doesn’t even know …I don’t want to hurt my mom. No, I can’t hurt her…I feel like there’ll be a major disappointment. I just can’t.

Because she was afraid to hurt her mother, this participant was deprived of the support her mother might’ve given. Her mother never had the opportunity to help her daughter. Because of her daughter’s fear of hurting her, she was unable to protect her grandchild and may never even know about his or her existence.

If the interviewee suffers from grief, regret, or emotional trauma after her abortion, her mother won’t know why. She won’t be equipped to help her.

The study doesn’t reveal how old the study participant was, if she was a minor, or whether she lived with her mother.

Sadly, many pregnant people don’t tell their families out of fear of condemnation, shame, or the fear of hurting or disappointing them. So, they are never offered the support that could make them feel less alone; the support that might have saved their baby’s lives and also saved them from a lifetime of grief and regret.

Another participant explained why she kept her abortion a secret. She seemed to have trouble expressing herself, but her grief, guilt, and ambivalence came through:

I just didn’t tell them. I don’t want to say it’s like a shameful secret but…it feels more like keep it a secret to keep us safe. Safe, because, like, it is. I don’t know.

It wasn’t an easy decision for us, and, like, I will think about it occasionally for the rest of my life. But I didn’t need my family and my community shoving down my throat that I was a baby killer and I’m all these terrible things.

I’m like, I know it’s the right thing. Absolutely. I cry about it and I’m hurt. Like, I have not been able to talk myself out of it and I have not been able to, like. Like, I know it’s the right thing for me and my family. So I just haven’t told anybody.

Though she insists that abortion is the right decision (possibly trying to convince herself more than the interviewer), she’s clearly conflicted about it and very troubled.

And I remember crying about it for days and all these emotions, but it kind of woke me up.

And it was like, a lot of people look at women, unfortunately, because they have this old-school mindset that we are just human incubators, that we were put on this earth to make babies, be good housewives and do what we have to do.

And that was it. And it kind of took me aback and woke me up a little like, whoa, that’s not what I am. I’m a human being. I have rights.

Rather than face her emotional pain, which caused her to cry “for days,” she seems to have redirected her emotions by committing herself wholeheartedly to a specific version of reality. One where a huge swath of the population wants women to be nothing more than “baby machines” with no rights, and abortion is simply standing up for oneself.

But how accurate is that narrative in 2026? I’d wager not as accurate as she thinks.

That’s not to say that sexism doesn’t exist or that women have never faced discrimination. Some men, historically, have viewed women as only good for having children, and bigots exist today. Many, many women in the public eye have gotten offensive, sexist, hateful comments and rape threats. There are bad people out there.

I know a lot of pro-lifers, and I don’t know any who think women should have no rights and be nothing but walking incubators. (In fact, about three-quarters of pro-lifers I know are women.)

But the participant’s beliefs serve her emotionally. By converting her grief into righteous anger and indignantly affirming her “right” to abortion, she can silence her conscience. It’s easy to see why some women become hard-core feminists after having abortions. Anger is an easier emotion to cope with than grief, loss, or guilt.

Another participant said, “I cry a lot because I don’t feel proud of what I’m doing right now. I cry a lot, but I think that’s the best I can do right now.”

Also, I was taking pills, so I don’t know what happened. Like, because it’s my fault. I know I should be more careful. But it was maybe accident. I was taking pills, but the doctor says not 100%, so exactly.

Clearly, she feels guilty about becoming pregnant. This is sad, because no one gets pregnant by themselves. Did the baby’s father take any responsibility for the pregnancy?

[My partner] gets very emotional about this stuff. So, like, when we got here, he was already just bawling out. I was like, you cannot do this while going in here. Please don’t. That’s why… I’m trying to keep, you know, a happy vibe.

In this case, it was the baby’s father who had a hard time with the abortion. Abortion hurts men, too.

According to the researchers, nearly half of the participants “did not have a plan for follow-up care at home.” Meaning they were not planning on getting a follow-up examination to make sure the abortion was complete and there were no other problems.

For some, the only doctor who knew about the abortion might be hours away. This could easily put them at risk for post-abortion complications and leave them with no one to contact if they have a problem.

Some of the participants who lived in states where abortion is banned believed that if anyone found out they aborted, they would be arrested. So they hadn’t told any doctors beforehand, and they were afraid to go to the hospital after the fact.

Like, if I was to get something go wrong with the abortion and I need to seek medical attention, how do I tell them that? … Like, without lying, like, because I don’t like to lie. But I mean, in Texas, that’s your only choice. Don’t want to be on the bad ends with law enforcement or if you don’t just want an enemy right there, you know, the doctors.

It’s pro-abortion groups that spread misinformation that people who have abortions will be arrested. They use this as a scare tactic.

When women are charged with crimes connected to taking the abortion pill, it’s for things such as abandoning a living baby or throwing a fully developed body into the trash. Pro-choicers amplify and distort these stories.

They have created a climate of fear that could cause people experiencing abortion complications to avoid getting medical treatment. This is very concerning.

No law anywhere in the United States allows a post-abortive person to be brought up on charges solely for having an abortion in a different state. Lack of Birth Control

One participant said she got pregnant because she was unable to obtain birth control since she lost her Medicaid. She was also denied a sterilization procedure she wanted; the doctor said that at 26, she was too young to get the surgery. Even though she already had two children, he said she might regret it later.

I wouldn’t even be going through this if I wouldn’t have lost my Medicaid and if my OBGYN would just let me get my tubes tied. But since I have 2 girls. We can’t do that. You’re not old enough. Interesting. I’m 26 years old. I think I can make my own decisions.

In the study, 61.5% of participants were Black. Some of the Black participants said distrust of doctors was one reason for not consulting any medical providers in their home state before traveling to have an abortion.

What do you think about this narrative of like Black women dying during maternal issues? You know, it is… very much true because even when I was in the hospital, I’m glad I had a Black nurse because she’s the one who noticed my epidural hadn’t kicked in and nobody had been in to check on me.

And so when she came in and she saw that I was still in pain, she went to get the anesthesiologist, and they found out they put it in the wrong spot.

Another Black woman, who also had bad experiences with white doctors, said, “[Clinicians in my state] are like purely white. Like white, white to the point where they don’t know that Black people have feelings.”

The study also found that although many abortion funds pay for poor women’s abortions and travel expenses, some participants didn’t know about them.

Another associated challenge was the inconsistency in funding information and availability… Information about funding appeared to be varied and dependent on what the clinic staff offered during time of contact, as well as the time of month and year when funding fluctuated.

Some patients were offered a reduction in service cost, while others were not. Some patients were connected to abortion funds right away, while others mentioned they did not even know about abortion funding support.

One participant booked an appointment at the abortion facility and rescheduled three times. She didn’t say directly why she kept rescheduling, but it may have been because she had to save up money.

Despite all her conversations with the abortion facility, she said, “Not once has anybody said, there’s also financial help for you if you can’t afford it or other options.”

Another participant was able to contact different abortion funds, but they took a long time to provide the money she needed. This person ended up having what must have been a very late abortion, because it cost at least $2000.

All the funding places I would get in touch with, they would take days, weeks to respond to me…[I]t would tell me they could only cover 300 [dollars], or, you know, maybe 400. But at that time, the cost was about 2000.

An average abortion under 12 weeks costs $650. At 18 weeks, the average price is $1300. So a $2000 abortion is likely in the late second or beyond.

Abortion, again, is available in Illinois up through birth. The participant didn’t say why she had the abortion.

Statistics from this study line up with past studies showing that the abortion rate among Black people is considerably higher than among white people.

As previously mentioned, 61.5% of those who had abortions in the study were Black. Only 24% were white. However, Black people make up only 12-13% of the population, and white people make up around 58%.

Of course, there were only 208 people in the study, and they all traveled out of state for their abortions. They may be a representative sample of all people having abortions, but that’s not certain.

Nevertheless, this is one more piece of evidence showing that abortions are becoming more concentrated in the Black community, and it may be an increasing challenge for the pro-life movement, which is predominantly white, to reach these women. For example, the stereotype of pro-lifers as very conservative and the added stereotype of conservatives as racist may be a barrier.

It might be a good idea for pro-lifers to listen to Black voices and focus on becoming good allies to people of color, so we have some credibility when we try to appeal to abortion-minded Black women.

Source: Tuyet-Mai H. Hoang, PhD et al. “Patient-Reported Experiences of Abortion Travel” JAMA Netw Open (August 6, 2026) 9;(8):e2627603.

Move over,Illinois! Our bull dyke,multi millionaire,Maoist Governor here in Massachusetts just signed a bill telling "doctors",and pregnant women (sorry,pregnant people) that it's open season here on unborn...and partially born...babies.

She,no doubt,got a huge campaign donation from "women's health care providers" to sign it. After all,there's serious $$$ to be made tearing little tiny babies apart and throwing the pieces in the trash....along with all those bloody sponges and stuff.

Grok says estimates of the percentage of American women who have had an abortion are between one-fourth and one-third. Those are incredible percentages.

Having an abortion leaves deep pyschological scars, by their own admission, generally, and when a woman sits on a toilet and excretes a human life, along with copious amounts of blood, she will never be the same when she gets up.

So, she needs comfort. She can turn to God for healing, or she can delusionallly turn to the democrat party because it says they have made a wonderful choice for women’s rights.

I think that accounts for the state of mind of millions of American women and for the difference in the male and female vote for Heels Up Harris. If they vote for a pro-life Republican, they have trouble reconciling that with their actions.

Grok says estimates of the percentage of American women who have had an abortion are between one-fourth and one-third. Those are incredible percentages.

So, she needs comfort. She can turn to God for healing, or she can delusionallly turn to the democrat party because it says they have made a wonderful choice for women’s rights.

This is the natural outcome of the Dobbs decision. Leave it to the states to decide exactly how gruesome they want to be.

The next step is for pro-life groups to engage in campaigns to demonize abortion tourism states. Billboards, social media etc.

Is your daughter suddenly going on a weekend in Massachusetts?

“Did she develop a sudden interest in history or is she going for an abortion? You should ask her.”

“Is Chicago really her kind of town or is she traveling there for an abortion? You should ask her.”

“Why is she going to Delaware? Abortion or vacation. You should ask her.”

Of course they are. People who want an abortion or recreational marijuana are obviously simply going to go to a state where it’s legal. Did ANYONE think otherwise? Really?

That number is coming from the Guttmacher Institute or whatever its called. Its an way overinflated number to push the idea that abortion is so common and supported. Go look at the women in your own family and say that 1/4 to 1/3 have had an abortion. Probably not.

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