Interactive: The Geography of Abortion Access

The Daily Beast ^ | 01-27-13 | Michael Keller and Allison Yarrow

[Salman]

In the four decades since Roe v. Wade, states have enacted hundreds of provisions restricting access to abortion services—the majority of which were legislated in 2011 and 2012. In many cases, these provisions, such as mandatory wait times, make it more difficult for women seeking abortions, and in other cases have caused clinics to close. The most recent abortion-provider census data assembled by the Guttmacher Institute dates back to 2008, and found about 850 clinics.

The Daily Beast gathered its own data and called more than 750 clinics, to confirm their locations and the number of weeks of pregnancy through which they offered abortions. Exact clinic locations in this map have been obscured to be neither visible nor retrievable. We focused on clinics and doctor’s offices whose primary businesses are abortion services.

[Salman]

Interactive map at link.

To a lib, this is a cause for concern because there are remote places not within a day's drive of an abortionist. But it looks like pretty thorough coverage to me.

[GloriaJane]

[Mrs. Don-o]

Hey, it doesn't matter whether we make abortion illegal, as long as we can make it unthinkable. It's happening. Over 85% of American counties don't have even one abortion provider. The number of abortionists is dropping (from about 3,000 in 1982, to under 850 in 2012) and their median age is approaching 60.

Thirty years ago there were just a few hundred Pregnancy Services (prolife) centers, and now there are 4200. And 400,000 marched against abortion last week in DC, a big majority of under the age of 30.

"Pro-choice" is a graying, ageing breed. NARAL dropped the divisive word "Abortion" from their name years ago, and now they don't even want to use the word "choice", since they don't care to say what they're choosing.

Hmm. Wonder why.