Dozens of clinics have stopped offering abortions in the states with some form of ban

Ayana Archie

July 28, 2022 / 4:31 pm

caption: Reproductive Health Services is shown in Montgomery, Ala., in 2014. At the time, it was the only abortion clinic in the state capital.

In the month since the U.S. Supreme Court voted to revoke abortions as a constitutional right in its reversal of the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, 43 clinics across 11 states have stopped offering abortion care.

Those numbers are according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.

From June 24, the day the ruling was reversed, to July 24, seven states — Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas — went from having 38 abortion clinics among them to having none. In 2020, those states accounted for 80,500 abortions.

All of those states have enacted total abortion bans since Roe v. Wade was overturned, according to the the institute, which focuses on sexual and reproductive health rights.

During that same month, Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee — states that enacted abortion bans after six weeks of pregnancy — got rid of a total five abortion clinics.

"Before six weeks of pregnancy, many people are not even aware yet that they are pregnant," the Guttmacher Institute said. "Even those who recognize their pregnancy right away are left with only a two-week window, at most, to decide whether to seek, and then schedule and obtain an abortion." [Copyright 2022 NPR]