Today, almost all — 96% — abortion procedures take place in clinics, not in hospitals or doctor’s offices. And many of those clinics are closing. Data from the Abortion Care Network estimate that the number of independent clinics in the U.S. fell 35% over the last 10 years and that the pace of closure doubled in 2022, after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade.
That has put enormous strain on the clinics that are still operating. After bans took effect in neighboring states, North Carolina saw a 37% increase in the number of abortions performed; Kansas, 36%; Colorado, 33%. Some providers now see 50 abortion patients per 12-hour shift, more than double the number they saw before Dobbs. And thousands of women haven’t been able to get the abortions they need; in just the two months following the decision, an estimated 10,000 women continued pregnancies they would have otherwise ended.
This got me wondering: Why do we rely so heavily on abortion clinics? Why isn’t abortion accessible through the same channels we use for other prescriptions or outpatient procedures? And in a country where 1 in 10 women traveled out of state to terminate pregnancies before Dobbs, why can’t doctor’s offices and hospitals pick up more of the load?
