Abortions performed by registered providers in Texas fell by 60% in the first month after the state passed the most restrictive abortion law in the US in decades, according to new figures.
Nearly 2,200 abortions were reported by Texas providers in September after a new law took effect that bans the procedure once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and when many do not know they are pregnant. The law is without exception in cases of rape or incest.
The figures were released this month by the Texas health and human services commission. In August, there had been more than 5,400 abortions statewide. State health officials said more data will be released on a monthly basis.
The numbers offer a fuller picture of the sharp drop in patients that Texas doctors have described in their clinics over the past five months, during which time courts have repeatedly allowed the restrictions to stay in place. It has left some Texas patients traveling hundreds of miles to clinics in neighboring states or farther, causing a backlog of appointments in those places.
People seeking legal abortions have traveled to Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana, according to reporting by the Dallas Morning News.
The first month after #SB8 took effect, abortions in Texas dropped almost 60% – not because people stopped needing care.
— Women's March (@womensmarch) February 9, 2022
Instead, Texans started traveling 300+ miles to out-of-state clinics, which struggle to keep up with demand.
Abolish SB8.https://t.co/tLokTzKX9m
The Texas law conflicts with the landmark US supreme court ruling Roe v Wade, and other rulings, that prevent a state from banning abortion early in pregnancy, but was written in a way that has essentially outmaneuvered those precedents.
Under the law, any private citizen is entitled to make a claim for $10,000 or more by bringing a lawsuit against someone who performed or helped a woman obtain an abortion after the limit – which opponents have condemned as a bounty. So far, no anti-abortion supporters have filed any suits.
Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group, issued a statement saying “the success of the Texas Heartbeat Act is embodied by every child saved”.
Texas abortion providers have acknowledged the law is likely to stay on the books for the foreseeable future.
It comes as the supreme court has signaled a willingness to weaken or reverse the Roe v Wade precedent in a ruling that is expected in June.
Abortion providers in more liberal states, such as California, Illinois and New York, are expanding clinics and boosting travel assistance to prepare for an influx of patients from conservative states if the US supreme court does end or severely undermines the constitutional right to the procedure.
Associated Press contributed to this report
