The Quickie: In the Nine Months Post-Dobbs Tens of Thousands Denied Abortions
For Immediate Release: June 15, 2023
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: new WeCount data shows devastation to abortion access, broad support for abortion continues according to Gallup, and anti-LGBTQ+ activity looms over Pride.
NEW DATA: IN THE NINE MONTHS POST-DOBBS TENS OF THOUSANDS DENIED ABORTIONS. Today, the Society of Family Planning released WeCount data for the nine months following the Dobbs decision (July 2022-March 2023). Researchers found that nationwide more than 25,000 people were unable to get an abortion from a provider due to the rapid increase in state-level abortion bans. Additionally, more than 80,000 people experienced disruptions in accessing abortion care in their home states with total or six-week abortion bans, giving us a sense of the sheer volume of people that likely traveled out-of-state for critical health care.
The states with the largest increase in abortions provided by a clinician were: Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, California, and Kansas. However, abortion access in Florida and North Carolina has been significantly curtailed since the end of the study, likely indicating an even further reduction in access to care on the horizon.
“The latest release of #WeCount data demonstrates the ways the Dobbs decision continues to devastate abortion access across the country, especially in states where abortion has been heavily restricted or banned,” said Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, #WeCount Co-Chair and professor at University of California, San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH). “We know that being denied abortion care can have devastating mental, emotional, physical and economic impacts on people, and that is what people are experiencing across wide swaths of the country right now.”
Read the full report here.
BROAD SUPPORT FOR ABORTION RIGHTS CONTINUES A YEAR POST-DOBBS: Yesterday, Gallup released their annual polling on attitudes toward abortion, demonstrating once again broad support for abortion rights. Some of the findings include:
- A record-high 69% of those polled said abortion should be generally legal during the first three months of pregnancy. 85% of respondents continue to support legal abortion.
- 61% of Americans continue to think the overturn of Roe v. Wade was a “bad thing”.
- Support for abortion access under any circumstance continues to grow with 34% support compared to 13% support for a total abortion ban.
- 84% of Democrats and 52% of Independents identify as “pro-choice” and support has increased dramatically since 2021.
Read the full polling at Gallup.
DARK CLOUD OF ANTI-LGBTQ+ ACTIVITY LOOMS OVER PRIDE: While support for LGBTQ+ people is at historic highs as we celebrate Pride Month this year, a dark cloud of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and fervor looms large as anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and activists ramp up vicious attacks on the community, as reported by the Washington Post. Over the past year, we have seen an avalanche of bills targeting LGBTQ+ individuals, including but not limited to: laws banning trans students from participating in the sports teams of their choice, restrictions on gender-affirming care, bans on drag performances, and book bans. According to the Human Rights Campaign, anti-LGBTQ+ groups spent at least $50 million airing anti-trans ads during the 2022 election cycle. Despite this, the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric was often unpersuasive to independents in swing states.
Say it with us: the anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ movements are one in the same. They use the same tactics and strategies, introduce similar bills, parrot the same dangerous talking points and rhetoric, and push the same ideology of limiting people’s bodily autonomy.
“It is painfully obvious to us that they are using the same playbook, but in an expedited time frame,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Chief Medical Officer for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said. “The same phenomenon that happened with abortion care happened with trans care. We had to be ready to quickly use all of the resources we have to make sure folks knew what care they could get, where they could get it and for potentially how long they could get it.”
Read more at the Washington Post.