The Guttmacher Institute today released the latest round of data from its Monthly Abortion Provision Study, offering state and national abortion estimates from January 2023 through June 2024. The latest data set for the first time includes evidence on the impact of Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which took effect on May 1. An in-depth look at Florida-specific findings is also available in an accompanying policy analysis.
All the data from the Monthly Abortion Provision Study are available on our recently launched dashboard. The new data show a monthly average of 8,050 clinician-provided abortions in Florida in the first three months of 2024, followed by a jump in April (9,730 abortions, a 21% increase compared with the monthly average for January–March), as providers and patients went to great lengths to ensure care before the ban went into effect. After the six-week ban went into effect on May 1, the number of abortions dropped to an estimated 5,630 in May (a decrease of 30% from the January–March average) and 5,200 in June (a 35% decrease).
“Our data paint a vivid picture of the chaos and confusion caused by Florida’s six-week abortion ban,” says Isaac Maddow-Zimet, Guttmacher data scientist and Monthly Abortion Provision Study project lead. “Obtaining an abortion in Florida has become much more difficult, with far-reaching implications for Florida residents who now have to cross multiple state lines to get an abortion at a clinic after six weeks’ gestation. It also affects residents of nearby states with total or early gestational bans who previously could have traveled to Florida for abortion care.”
Understanding the impact of Florida’s six-week ban
Since Florida's immediate neighbors have either a total (Alabama) or six-week (Georgia) abortion ban in effect, the closest clinic that offers abortions after six weeks’ gestation is in North Carolina, an average one-way distance of 590 miles. In North Carolina, patients have multiple restrictions to overcome, including a 12-week abortion ban and a 72-hour waiting period after mandatory in-person counseling—meaning some Floridians may have to travel even farther to states like Virginia or Illinois, or to Puerto Rico, to obtain an abortion without a medically unnecessary waiting period or after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The Florida ban has also made abortion access more challenging for residents of states across the region with their own abortion bans and restrictions. In 2023, about 9,000 people traveled to Florida to obtain an abortion, with particularly large inflows from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Since May 1, residents of these states are far less likely to be able to get care in Florida.
Florida’s 30% decrease in clinician-provided abortions in the first month after the six-week ban took effect is substantial, but it does not match the steeper declines seen in Georgia, South Carolina and Texas following the implementation of six-week abortion bans in those states. Several factors may account for this difference:
- Florida’s abortion ban took effect after a long lead time between its passage and implementation, and an existing infrastructure of abortion funds and support organizations was ready to match patients to services within the legal time frame. However, increased strain on the capacity of abortion funds could mean that Florida's abortion support infrastructure is unable to sustain current levels of demand.
- Obtaining medication abortion via telehealth from providers in states with abortion shield laws has likely helped soften some of the impacts of Florida’s six–week ban. Because abortion pills sent via mail from other states under the protection of shield laws are available past Florida’s six-week cut-off, this type of care will likely continue to play a critical role for many state residents.
“Our new data on the impact of Florida’s six-week abortion ban yet again demonstrates the ongoing harm that anti-abortion justices on the US Supreme Court unleashed with their Dobbs decision,” says Kelly Baden, Guttmacher Institute vice president for public policy. “But this is not the end of the story. Florida voters will decide this November whether to enshrine protections for abortion in the state constitution. This ballot measure must get at least 60% of the vote to pass, which is a tough hurdle, but it would create a legal avenue to challenge the state’s six-week abortion ban and other restrictions—and would be a critical step toward ensuring that everyone can get the abortion they need and deserve.”
About the Study
The Monthly Abortion Provision Study estimates the number of clinician-provided abortions in each US state without a total abortion ban from January 2023 through June 2024. It collects data on procedural and medication abortions provided at brick-and-mortar health facilities (such as clinics or doctor’s offices), as well as medication abortions provided via telehealth and virtual providers in the United States. Counts for all months include telehealth abortions provided under shield laws to patients in states where abortion is not banned but telehealth provision of abortion is banned. Abortions are counted as having been provided in the state in which a patient had a procedure or where pills were dispensed.
The study’s estimates are generated by a statistical model that combines data from samples of providers with historical data on the caseload of every US provider. As more data are collected each month, estimates for past months become more precise. Each estimate is expressed as an uncertainty interval quantifying our confidence that the true value falls within a particular range.
Acknowledgment
The Monthly Abortion Provision Study is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, the Office of Research on Women’s Health, and the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research of the National Institutes of Health, under award number R61HD112921. The content is the sole responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
About the Guttmacher Institute
The Guttmacher Institute is a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights worldwide. The Institute has a long history of tracking abortion incidence in the United States and globally. Every three years since 1974, the Guttmacher Institute has conducted the Abortion Provider Census of all known facilities providing abortion in the United States to collect information about service provision, including total number of abortions.