“We got nearly 100 calls the day after the Dobbs decision from patients in Alabama,” said Kwajelyn Jackson, executive director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center in Atlanta. In states where abortion remains at least partially legal the phones haven’t stopped ringing.
Since June, thousands of Americans have crossed state lines seeking abortion, like a pressure wave spreading out from a blast zone. A data set shared exclusively with FiveThirtyEight shows that in the two months after the Supreme Court decision, there were 10,670 fewer abortions as compared to pre-Dobbs estimates. That figure is a net, counting both declines in some states and increases in others, and it shows how a few states are absorbing some — but not all — of the demand for abortions in states where it’s now banned.
The results suggest that in July and August, there were more than 10,000 people who “felt they had no options,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a professor and public health social scientist at the University of California, San Francisco. Along with Dr. Alison Norris, a professor of epidemiology at the Ohio State University, she co-chairs #WeCount, a national research project led by the Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit that supports research on abortion and contraception. “They couldn’t travel, and they had to figure out what else to do,” Upadhyay said.
Data compiled by #WeCount is designed to capture state-level information on abortion access in the wake of the Dobbs decision. This first data release compares the number of legal abortions — including surgical and medication abortions — in each month from April to August 2022, showing how the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June has reshaped the abortion landscape.
That topline number conceals an enormous amount of fluctuation between states. In all states that saw declines in their abortion numbers — which include the 15 states in which abortion was banned or severely limited over the summer — the number of abortions fell by about 22,000. Some of those women appear to have traveled out of state, because in other states, the number of abortions rose by an aggregate of about 12,000….
The above comes from an Oct. 30 story on fivethirtyeight.com.
Thanks be to God that fewer babies were killed and mothers violated. Let us continue to pray and work for the protection of all human persons.
May God bless those newborn babies and their mothers with the help and support they need. And, may He bless the good work of all the life-affirming pregnancy centers, staffed largely by volunteers, across our nation.
All through this current election season, many priests have urged Catholics to be sure to vote– but that’s all– they feel they cannot tell people who or what to vote for– which makes good sense, in most cases. However– the Catholic Church is no longer strongly behind Christian morals, as they once were, along with all the Protestant churches. I have heard not one word from the pulpit, about Pro Life, nor Pro Christian Man-Woman Marriage and Family. I have seen no parish groups trying to get parishioners interested in joining campaigns to make phone calls and knock on doors, for “Vote No on Prop. 1” and similar issues, after Mass. Nothing. And no clergy groups in our Church– or groups of Catholic and Protestant clerics– banding together for Christian values– to fight things like abortion and gay “marriage” and gay families– which Democrats have been trying, in Congress, to codify. Etc. In fact– I never do hear one sermon about Christian Morality, and how Christ wants us to live– and tips for a good, practicing Catholic, on the practice of their Faith. We used to hear that daily, before Vatican II! Now, except for radical social justice issues– we don’t hear much! And radical social justice issues of our day, unfortunately– do not include unjust killing of unborn children, nor support for Traditional Man-Woman Christian Marriage and Family– which has been heavily assaulted since the 1960s! Nor do we hear any fiery “social justice” sermons against the sin of pornography, child pornography, online pornography, human trafficking– and watching immoral movies, plays, TV shows, reading sinful books, etc.– highly destructive to individuals, children, and to marriages and families! Fighting to establish and uphold good Christian values, is absolutely fundamental to our Church, to our country, and to our entire civilization. If our Church, and all the other churches, fail to fight for Christian Morality– then, what can we really expect of election results, after Nov. 8th?