A new study confirms a rise in travelers from states as far away as Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Georgia visiting Massachusetts to seek abortion care since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June 2022.
In addition to the estimated 37 percent increase in residents outside Massachusetts seeking abortion care here, investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital found nonprofit funding covering costs for out-of-state patients more than doubled. Results are published in JAMA Network Open.
“Before Dobbs, there was conjecture that certain states would get all the interstate traveling patients based on geographic proximity to states with complete abortion bans,” said corresponding author Elizabeth Janiak of the Division of Family Planning at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. “After Dobbs, we set out to understand how many out-of-state travelers come to Massachusetts for abortion care, and how they cover the cost of care.”
Not a huge surge in Mass as one might think.
Data recently released shows thousands more abortions in Illinoos and New Mexico, compared to previous years.