Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

More Than 30,000 Fewer Abortions Performed in Six Months after Dobbs, Study Finds
National Review ^ | April 13, 2023 | Jeff Zymeri

Posted on 04/15/2023 10:35:58 AM PDT by Morgana

In the six months after the Dobbs decision, an average of 5,377 fewer abortions were provided in the U.S. each month, or 32,260 fewer abortions cumulatively.

The data comes from a new Society of Family Planning report which sought to comprehensively determine the new legal regime’s material effect. The numbers from July to December 2022 represent a drop of greater than 6 percent compared to the period before the Dobbs decision was released. Top Stories What Is Jim Jordan’s Evidence That the FBI Is Using Undercover Agents to Infiltrate Catholic Congregations? Andrew C. McCarthy NRPLUS U.S. Appeals Court Judge Dismisses ProPublica Story on Justice Thomas Abigail Anthony How Shakespeare Changed Everything Daniel Hannan NRPLUS

“In April, before Dobbs, the total estimated number of abortions (82,450) was higher than previous years [and] is consistent with an ongoing upward trend in abortion incidence since 2017,” read the report. “Thus, the net overall declines in abortion incidence in the U.S. after Dobbs are even more striking given that there were trends of increasing abortion rates just before Dobbs.”

There were an average of 77,073 abortions per month during that half-year period. The national abortion rate decreased from 13.2 per 1,000 women of reproductive age in April 2022 to 12.3 per 1,000 women for the monthly average of abortions in the six months after the Supreme Court’s decision.

“In June, after the leaked draft opinion by Justice Alito, we saw an increase in numbers of abortions in many states, perhaps representing clinics scaling up in anticipation of changes with the Dobbs decision. In July, the first full month after the Dobbs decision, we saw severe declines in states with bans, meaningful declines in states with restrictions, and small increases in states with few legal restrictions,” explained the report. “The national number of abortions decreased again in September and October, and reached the lowest point of the six-month period in November, when we observed 9,970 fewer abortions as compared to April.” More onAbortion U.S. Supreme Court Stays Ruling That Suspended Abortion-Pill Approval The Week Trump’s Proposal: Ditch the Pro-Life Stuff, Keep the 2020 Conspiracy Theory

In the states that had bans, there were an estimated 43,410 fewer abortions. This translates to a monthly average of 7,235 fewer abortions in these states.

The states with the greatest decreases were Texas, which had 15,540 fewer abortions; Georgia, which had 10,930 fewer abortions; Tennessee, which had 6,560 fewer abortions; and Ohio, which had 4,920 fewer abortions. The Society of Family Planning, a pro-abortion nonprofit, noted that women in these states traveled elsewhere, delayed their abortion, or ultimately decided not to go through with it. Texas, Tennessee, and eleven other states had comprehensive bans as defined by the group. Georgia and Ohio were part of a second category of states where abortion was legal but meaningfully restricted.

In some states where abortion was already severely restricted before Dobbs, such as Missouri, post-Dobbs declines appear to be small changes, the report explained.

States with the largest increases in the total number of abortions provided compared to the baseline include Florida (7,190 more abortions), Illinois (6,840 more abortions), North Carolina (4,730 more abortions), Colorado (2,580 more abortions), and Michigan (2,490 more abortions). Some states that had restrictions in place but were closer in distance to states that banned abortion also experienced surges in number of abortions, such as Minnesota (1,820 more abortions) and Kansas (1,240 more abortions).

The group explained that the majority of states on either coast where abortion remains legal with few restrictions did not experience surges, suggesting “that many abortion seekers living in restrictive states may have traveled to other nearby states for care.”

“Nevertheless, even six months after the Court’s decision, the increases in numbers of abortions in states where abortion was permitted did not compensate for the reductions seen in states where abortion was banned,” read the report.

While the overall number of abortions decreased, abortions by telehealth providers increased from 3,610 in April 2022 (4 percent of all abortions), before the decision, to 8,540 in December (11 percent of all abortions). This change represents an increase of 137 percent in the number of abortions provided from virtual-only services, comparing April and December 2022.

Pro-life groups celebrated the hard data showing fewer abortions overall.

“The news that abortions in this country dropped by 32,260 in the six months following the Dobbs v. Jackson decision is absolutely wonderful!” explained Carol Tobias, the president of the National Right to Life Committee, to the Catholic News Agency.

“Women are choosing life for their children,” Tobias said. “With pro-abortion governors and a Biden administration doing [everything] possible to make abortion easily accessible, pro-lifers need to do even more to help and encourage women to choose life.”

Pro-choice organizations took the opposite tack, arguing that the numbers represent a real risk for women.

“Abortion bans have already caused immeasurable harm. Bans cause extreme stress, push patients and their children into poverty, and make it more likely for patients to stay with violent partners,” wrote the organization Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health on Twitter.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion; prolife
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last
That is 30,000 babies that did not die from abortion.

I hope in another six mounts it grows to 60,000+

Deo Gratias

1 posted on 04/15/2023 10:35:58 AM PDT by Morgana
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Morgana

This infuriates Democrats. What does that tell you?


2 posted on 04/15/2023 10:40:35 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

It tells me we are winning!


3 posted on 04/15/2023 10:42:23 AM PDT by Morgana ( Always a bit of truth in dark humor. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

This is what the proAbortion vultures are afraid of…..
….decrease in numbers of abortion but also new legislation to continue to whittle it down.


4 posted on 04/15/2023 10:42:33 AM PDT by Guenevere (“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Some say the Roe overturning won’t save lives but it is saving lives. I saw one estimate that it might save 100,000 a year. Because abortion is not available in some states women must travel to abort. These delays give women more time to think and saves lives. All the controversy is also making many women face what an abortion actually is. If it hurts Republicans ... Right is right and wrong is wrong. I engaged in street prayer in front of abortion clinics in the 90s and even then I heard that 20% of women who miss their first appointment at an abortion clinic, don’t abort. We need to push ultrasounds/sonograms. 80-90% of women who see their baby through one don’t abort because a concrete bond is formed.


5 posted on 04/15/2023 10:46:06 AM PDT by MDLION ("Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Good news . Hopefully it’s a trend that continues


6 posted on 04/15/2023 10:48:13 AM PDT by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

More lesbians acting as men. We can also reduce government costs by paying for tranny surgery. More leftists who couldn’t breed saves money.


7 posted on 04/15/2023 10:49:01 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (America is now Nazi Germany circa 1935. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Illinois is virtually advertising itself as abortion central, but Florida is surprising.


8 posted on 04/15/2023 10:50:04 AM PDT by bigbob
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Thank GOD some mothers are getting the message!

(Perhaps fathers; too!)


9 posted on 04/15/2023 10:52:10 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Yes, 30,000 children were not murdered, and may have a chance to live the life that God intended for them.

Thank the Lord!


10 posted on 04/15/2023 10:52:52 AM PDT by Boogieman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MDLION
It's hard to UNsee your child!
11 posted on 04/15/2023 10:52:59 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Boogieman

Donald Trump alone delivered on what every GOP presidential nominee promised since 1980... the abolition of Roe v. Wade. And, as result, a baseball stadium’s worth of lives were saved in just half a year. Say what you want about Trump but his presidency saved lives.

I’m reminded of a line from Jack Nicholson’s Col. Jessup monologue in A Few Good Men: “My existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.”


12 posted on 04/15/2023 11:05:53 AM PDT by irishjuggler
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

All praise to God. Those babies would have been gone if not for the prayers and legal battles that took down Roe.


13 posted on 04/15/2023 11:08:51 AM PDT by frank ballenger (You have summoned up a thundercloud. You're gonna hear from me. Anthem by Leonard Cohen)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: irishjuggler

I’ll be eternally grateful to Trump for placing the three justices on the Court who overturned the abomination.


14 posted on 04/15/2023 11:09:13 AM PDT by MDLION ("Trust in the Lord with all your heart" -Proverbs 3:5)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

30,000 wins. Thank you Lord


15 posted on 04/15/2023 11:15:09 AM PDT by Mom MD ( )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MDLION

32,260 more living children say “Thank you Trump!”


16 posted on 04/15/2023 11:53:46 AM PDT by JJBookman (Democrats = Party of Molech )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

Democrats saddened


17 posted on 04/15/2023 12:07:09 PM PDT by dsrtsage ( Complexity is just simple lacking imagination)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

Excellent news, but it’s the long-term body count that matters.


18 posted on 04/15/2023 12:36:56 PM PDT by TChad (Progressives are in favor of removing healthy sex organs from children. Conservatives oppose this.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Morgana

My guess is this may not mean 30K additional children born, but rather 30K times a woman thought twice about using abortion as contraception as she had done in the past…regardless a good start with more work to be done!


19 posted on 04/15/2023 12:42:16 PM PDT by NittanyLion
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MDLION

I agree with you. It stuns me sometimes, that here on this very site, some have said that Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett are too liberal for them, because of some rulings on other issues. Apparently to some here, these judges just aren’t conservative enough.

One poster here calls Amy Coney Barret, Amy Coney Ginsburg, with a picture which morphs the two of them together.


20 posted on 04/15/2023 12:52:31 PM PDT by Dilbert San Diego
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-25 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson