On June 24th, 2022, the United States Supreme Court landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated federal protection for abortion care. This decision has led to significant state restrictions and bans on abortion healthcare, and its impact is being felt by thousands of people and families nationwide. The #WeCount Project seeks to understand these shifts in how and where people obtain abortion care before and after the Supreme Court decision using data received from abortion providers across the United States.
#WeCount is a project of the Society of Family Planning and led by a research steering committee that is composed of a multidisciplinary group of researchers. ANSIRH core faculty member, Dr. Ushma Upadhyay is co-chair of the steering committee. Despite the dramatic declines in access in states that have enacted total abortion bans and 6-week bans, overall, the national monthly abortion volume has increased, with the 2024 monthly average greater than the 2023 and 2022 monthly averages.
Increased numbers of abortions in states that permit abortion likely represent a combination of two main factors: people traveling from states where they cannot access care, and increased abortions among residents of states where abortion remains legal.5,6 Such volume increases are likely influenced by reductions of barriers to abortion care, including reduced burden of cost 7,8 and travel by use of telehealth, increased financial support for low-income abortion seekers, and improved access via care navigation from practical support groups and public health departments. Over the study period, monthly fluctuations can be seen at state and national levels. These changes are due to dynamic combinations of state-level changes in access (decreases and increases) and seasonal variation in the need for abortion.
#WeCount is collaborating with abortion providers across the country to gather data on the monthly number of abortions to develop estimates for all U.S. States. During this period of rapid change and disruption, the study team is collecting data on the number of abortions provided each month, in each state between April 2022 through July 2023.The provision of medication abortion via telehealth increased across the study period and continues to increase.
Telehealth, as a service-delivery model for many types of healthcare, has increased in the past few years, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.9,10 The use of shield laws has brought access to telehealth abortions to residents of states where it was previously not available. While the majority of abortions occur within an in-person model of care, abortions provided via telehealth are an important and complementary model of care. Yet many states ban the use of telehealth for abortion care even while in-person abortion care remains legal.
