Abortion patients from across South flood N. Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. — Clinic by clinic, county by county and up to the highest levels of state government, no state embodies the nation’s post-Roe upheaval like North Carolina.
In the eight months since the federal right to abortion was eliminated, leaving states free to make their own abortion laws, North Carolina, where the procedure remains legal up to 20 weeks, has become a top destination for people from states where it is banned or severely restricted. North Carolina experienced a 37% jump in abortions, according to WeCount, an abortion-tracking project sponsored by the Society for Family Planning, which supports abortion rights. Providers in the state performed 3,190 abortions in April.
That number soared to 4,360 in August, after Roe fell. It was the biggest percentage increase in any state.
The state’s abortion providers are under strain, with women sometimes having to wait a month for an appointment. In Chapel Hill, nurses at the Planned Parenthood clinic say they often pull into the parking lot to find patients sleeping in their cars. The license plates are from Tennessee, Georgia, even Texas.
The large influx of patients has energized local volunteer networks offering rides, money for clinic fees and places to stay. It has also alarmed anti-abortion activists who in June were rejoicing when the court struck down Roe v. Wade, only to later discover a surge of abortions in their state.
“Right now, people are flocking here because they believe they can take the life of the unborn, and that concerns me,” said Ron Baity, a Baptist minister in Winston-Salem who is president of the anti-abortion group Return America.
The atmosphere around clinics has grown more tense as new activist groups emerge, and as more patients show up. Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, issued an executive order last year directing state officials to help ensure safety around abortion clinics.
In Raleigh, the capital, a Republican-led state Legislature is considering rolling back the threshold to around 12 weeks or less. Cooper has pledged to veto any new abortion restrictions.
Meanwhile, a half-dozen counties in North Carolina’s rural Piedmont and mountain regions have voted to become “sanctuaries” for the unborn, declaring their opposition to abortion. The designation is largely symbolic, state legal experts said, but the Personhood Alliance, which backs the movement, says such declarations send a message that can lay the political groundwork to help outlaw abortion later.
“We’re preparing for the hardest fight of our life,” said Jenny Black, CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, which includes North Carolina. “And we’re sober about the realities of how difficult that is going to be.”
The influx of patients was unexpected in this politically polarized place, where lawmakers have been tangling over abortion for years.
Planned Parenthood estimates more than one-third of its abortion patients in North Carolina are from out of state these days. But the no-show rate has also climbed.
“It’s just hard to get here,” said Dr. Jonas Swartz, a Duke Health obstetrician and gynecologist who sees patients at Planned Parenthood. “It’s a lot. You’ve got to arrange child care. If someone gets sick, if you lose transportation, you may just not be able to get here on the day you thought you were going to.”
A federal judge in Texas could order the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to withdraw its approval of mifepristone, a key component in medication abortions, affecting the availability of abortion pills across the country.
Medication was the method for 59% of abortions performed on North Carolina residents in 2020, with surgical procedures accounting for 37%, according to the most recent state data.
Members of the clinic’s staff said they were anxious about the shifting legal landscape. One nurse, Caroline Christopher, wore a gold chain with a coathanger pendant — an homage to her grandmother, she said, who had been an activist in the 1970s and wears a matching necklace. “We’re all trying to stay positive,” she said.
Ultimately, the clinic saw two dozen patients that day. A dozen canceled. Since the fall of Roe, the site has treated up to 35 people per day.
Journals that the clinic keeps in the recovery room were filled with entries about challenges the patients had faced.
“I am here from Johnson City, TN (4 hour drive) due to my state not providing the right to an abortion,” one patient wrote. “I have a 3 yr. old son, and am just now to a point in my life where I am stable enough to take care of us comfortably. Another child at this time is just not in the cards for us.”