Ohio sees drop in abortions as patients go out of state
Mia found out she was pregnant in mid-august last year, weeks after she had taken Plan B to prevent just that.
An undocumented immigrant and student, Mia supports her family financially and knew she wouldn’t be able to manage a pregnancy while trying to finish school. She scheduled an appointment with an Ohio abortion provider, who told her she wouldn’t be able to get the procedure in-state.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade weeks prior in their ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, prompting Ohio officials to reinstate the ban on abortions when cardiac activity can be detected. That’s usually about six weeks into a pregnancy.
Mia was among nearly 400 Ohioans who traveled out of state to get an abortion after the Dobbs ruling last year, according to research published last week from the Ohio Policy Evaluation Network. The findings show that confusion abounded in the months after the decision as state laws quickly changed and got caught up in lawsuits.
The Ohio ban is currently on hold, blocked by a Hamilton County Common Pleas Court judge. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has asked the Ohio Supreme Court to weigh in on the case.
Patients who shared their stories for the study, including Mia, were given pseudonyms to protect their privacy.
Mia ultimately went to Illinois to get an abortion after weighing her options and got financial support from an abortion fund. But she told researchers it was a difficult journey: She traveled alone by bus, got harassed by men and had to get off at each stop because she was sick.
“It was so hard to do it,” Mia said. “I did it anyway.”
How did abortion in Ohio change after Dobbs decision?
Abortions in Ohio decreased by 56% in July 2022 compared to July 2021, the study found. Providers performed 690 fewer abortions in August 2022 than the year prior.
Researchers estimate that over 1,500 people who previously could have gotten treatment in Ohio were unable to do so in that twomonth period.
At the same time, the study reported a jump in out-of-state abortions during the summer months. Roughly two-thirds of patients who sought abortions outside Ohio went to Illinois and Michigan, which have the least restrictive abortion laws in the Midwest. Twenty percent went to Indiana for the procedure, and others traveled to Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
Indiana passed a near-total abortion ban in September, but some providers sent patients there initially because the state’s previous law was less stringent than Ohio’s. Among those patients was a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was raped and impregnated by 27-year-old Gerson Fuentes, according to Franklin County prosecutors.
According to the study, researchers surveyed facilities in Ohio and other states on a monthly basis to collect data. Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said the findings warrant some skepticism since the Ohio Department of Health won’t release its 2022 abortion statistics for several more months.
Still, he said this affirms that abortions will decline in Ohio if lawmakers enact “commonsense, pro-life initiatives.”
“We’re not naive to recognize the fact that there are no limits or restrictions on travel from one state or another for any purpose or any reason,” Gonidakis said.
Tamara, a mother of two in her 30s, discovered she was pregnant in October after a doctor previously dissuaded her from tubal litigation. She told researchers she wasn’t sure if abortion was legal in Ohio and couldn’t get an appointment with the first clinic she called because of uncertainty over the state’s law. She eventually scheduled an appointment nearly two hours from her home.
“I’m a parent. I’m a single parent at that,” Tamara said. “I’m already struggling with two kids. How smart is it for me to throw another one on top of that? Not even talking about financially. Mentally. Just mentally.”