Most Women Denied Abortions by Texas Law Got Them Another Way

[Demovictory9]

Most Women Denied Abortions by Texas Law Got Them Another Way
New data suggests overall abortions declined much less than previously known, because women traveled out of state or ordered pills online.




In the months after Texas banned all but the earliest abortions in September, the number of legal abortions in the state fell by about half. But two new studies suggest the total number among Texas women fell by far less — around 10 percent — because of large increases in the number of Texans who traveled to a clinic in a nearby state or ordered abortion pills online.

Two groups of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin counted the number of women using these alternative options. They found that while the Texas law — which prohibits abortion after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, or around six weeks — lowered the number of abortions, it did so much more modestly than earlier measurements suggested.

Combined, the data points to what may happen to abortion access if the Supreme Court decides to overturn Roe v. Wade when it rules on another abortion law this summer. The data shows the limitations of laws restricting abortion. Yet it also shows how restrictions erect significant obstacles, which will cause some women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.

“The law has not done anything to change people’s need for abortion care; it has shifted where people are getting their abortion,” said Kari White, principal investigator of the university’s Texas Policy Evaluation Project and the lead researcher on the new out-of-state abortion study. She expressed surprise at how few abortions were prevented by such a sweeping set of restrictions: “The numbers are way bigger than we expected. It’s pretty astounding.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/06/upshot/texas-abortion-women-data.html

Recent research has shown that abortion pills outside formal health care settings are accessible, reliable and effective — and that information about Aid Access is increasingly being shared online. But some women don’t know it’s an option. “​​It’s been the question that has been on my mind for the last 10 years: How do you reach the ones who cannot find you?” said Rebecca Gomperts, the physician who runs Aid Access.