The state of California has become home to abortion tourism, revealed a new #WeCount report released by the Society of Family Planning.
In the 12-month period following the Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization decision on June 24, 2022, California became a “surge state” for abortions. The report found that the total number of abortions provided by a clinician cumulatively increased by 8,810, the fourth highest amount across the U.S. after Illinois, Florida and North Carolina.
The Dobbs decision effectively overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which protected the legal right to abortion in the United States. The Dobbs decision removed this federal protection, allowing individual states to create their own legislation.
“In some states, new abortion restrictions have been litigated in court, resulting in week-by-week changes to the legal status of abortion, creating confusion and abortion care churn,” the Society of Family Planning wrote in the report. “At the same time, some states have passed protective legislation that has potentially increased access – for residents and people coming from banned states – and protected providers.”
The #WeCount report tracked medical, procedural and telehealth abortions overseen by a licensed clinician. They acknowledged the limits of measuring abortion access, mentioning that they were unable to estimate the amount of abortions completed via Aid Access or volunteer accompaniment networks in Mexico. The report does not include self-managed abortions, which the Society of Family Planning defines as “any attempt to end a pregnancy outside the formal healthcare system, including using medications, herbs, or something else, or obtaining pills from friends or online without clinical assistance.”
For the 33 states where abortion remains legal, the Society of Family Planning recorded about 117,000 more abortions, or a 14% increase from before the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Out-of-state students have been disproportionately affected by the Dobbs decision. The states with the five largest cumulative drops in abortions during the one year-period after Dobbs include: Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana and Alabama. All of these states have banned abortion completely since the Dobbs decision, with the exception of Georgia, where a six-week ban was enacted.
Molly Holsinger, a junior majoring in political science and an e-board member of the Student Assembly for Gender Empowerment, USC’s intersectional feminist club, spoke on the report’s findings.
“As someone from Texas, the state with the largest drop in abortions post-Dobbs, this issue is especially important to me,” Holsinger said. “Access to safe, affordable abortion is healthcare, and denial of these services only leads to unsafe, back-alley situations for many women.”
A large proportion of the increase in abortions in states where it remains legal came from patients who traveled across state lines to facilities to obtain healthcare.
“It’s really not a public health triumph that people have to mobilize the financial and social resources to travel, sometimes hundreds of miles away from their home, to obtain basic health care,” said Dr. Alison Norris, co-chair of #WeCount and association professor at The Ohio State University’s College of Public Health, in an interview with CNN. “That’s really a public health crisis.”
Yari Navarro, a USC sophomore studying business administration said, “I think factors that contribute to the trend of California becoming a surge state might be the cost of having a child in the state of California, the access to abortions in California, and the progressive policies of the state of California.”
While speaking on what conversations USC can have, Navarro said it’s important to “provide education and awareness, have support spaces and work with outside organizations to improve efforts.”
“I think USC can help support students who may face barriers to accessing reproductive healthcare by offering proper health services, access to information and providing financial assistance to those who may be facing financial burdens and can’t afford proper aid,” Navarro said.