American politics are currently focused heavily on the issue of abortion rights in the country. Recent studies from The Ohio State University provide perspective into what the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would imply for women, particularly those who will be compelled to move across state lines.
Ohio residents to travel furthest to seek abortion services
According to one study, people of Ohio would travel far further to receive medical treatment if abortions were outlawed in the state. The same probably applies to many restricted locations nationwide, notably in the South and Midwest, according to the study’s authors.
The “best case” and “worst case” scenarios used to calculate the distance to providers were: two of Ohio’s five neighbouring states maintain offering of abortion services OR none of the neighbouring states do so following the Supreme Court’s decision.
Researchers calculate that the distance travelled to the closest abortion provider or clinic from the centres of 85 of Ohio’s 88 counties would be between 191 and 339 miles if the worst-case scenario actually occurred. In the best-case scenario, 62 out of 88 Ohio counties are only 115 to 279 miles distant.
Around 8% of Americans sought abortion outside their native state
The second study estimated the percentage of patients who had already left their states in search of abortion services using federal data from 2017. The policy setting and the number of clinicians per million reproductive-age women in each featured state were used to further examine the data.
According to the study, 8% on the aggregate of American patients received abortion care outside of their native state in 2017. Some states had far higher proportions, such as 57% in South Carolina and 74% in Wyoming. The average in states with severe abortion bans was 12%. In contrast, states with favourable abortion laws saw only 3% of patients fly outside the state, while states with middle-of-the-road abortion legislation saw a mean of 10% of patients seeking out-of-state abortion care. However, travelling out of state has challenges like health coverage and travel costs.
