More women come to Maine seeking abortion care

The number of women traveling to different states to get abortions has more than doubled nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in 2022 and triggered abortion bans and restrictions in many states, according to national data.

Some of those women came to Maine, which saw a modest increase in the number of out-of-state patients during the first half of 2023. But the impact has been far greater in regions bordering southern and western states that have since restricted or banned abortion.

The Guttmacher Institute, a New York-based think tank that researches abortion and advocates for abortion rights, has for the first time quantified, both nationally and for each state, how the bans have affected where women seek abortion care.

“Patients have been increasingly forced to travel to get care because abortion services within the formal health care system are no longer available in their home states,” the Guttmacher Institute said in an analysis of the data it released this month.

The institute compared January through June 2020 with the same period in 2023 and found that women traveling outside their home states to get abortions in another state increased from 9% of all abortions performed in 2020 to 17% in 2023. The number of women who crossed state lines to obtain abortions increased from 40,600 in the first half of 2020 to 92,100 in the first six months of 2023.

In Maine, the number of abortion patients from other states increased from 70 in the first half of 2020 to 90 during the first six months of this year. Abortions performed on women from other states accounted for 7% of all abortions this year, up from 6% in 2020.

The data shows the effects of the Supreme Court decision but does not reflect any impact from Maine’s new law expanding access to abortions later in pregnancy. That law took effect in October.

Like Maine, most of the other New England states also saw either a small increase or no increase in out-of-state abortions in the first six months of this year.

The numbers are in line with what providers predicted after the Supreme Court decision because of Maine’s distance from states enacting bans. The closest state to Maine that bans abortion is West Virginia.

Lisa Margulies, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, an abortion provider in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, said that while they are not seeing an influx of women seeking abortion care from other states, they are “ready to offer care to anyone who needs it.”

“We are a safe harbor in the midst of this national storm,” Margulies said. She said it’s difficult to project what the abortion landscape will look like in the next several years, as some states expand access, others restrict it, and as abortion-related lawsuits continue to make their way through the courts. On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case about mifepristone, the abortion medication, which could result in reduced access to the most commonly used pill.

Mike McClellan, policy director for the Christian Civic League of Maine, which opposes abortion on moral grounds, said it’s a “blessing” that in some states, abortion is more difficult, and that people may need to go out-of-state.

“As the states line up pro-abortion or pro-life, there’s a possibility Maine will have more people coming this way (for abortions),” McClellan said. He said people don’t pay attention to other costs to society when abortions are easy to obtain, saying women who get abortions can have mental health problems, struggling with their decision for years.

BIG INCREASE NEAR STATES WITH BANS

Some states bordering those that have enacted abortion bans since 2022 saw their patient numbers skyrocket, including New Mexico, where the percentage of abortions performed on out-of-state patients increased from 38% in 2020 to 74% in 2023. New Mexico borders Texas and Oklahoma, which are among the 18 states that have enacted bans or greatly restricted abortion access, according to Guttmacher.

Texas has been in the national spotlight after a woman sought an abortion 20 weeks into her pregnancy because her fetus had a fatal condition that also threatened her health. She was denied access to an abortion in her home state by the Texas Supreme Court. The woman indicated that she would travel to a different state to receive an abortion, although for safety reasons she did not say which state she was traveling to.

Dana Peirce at her home in Yarmouth on Oct. 24. Peirce was 8 months pregnant when she learned her baby had a lethal disorder and he would die in the womb or shortly after birth. She had to travel to Colorado to get an abortion and her story spurred Gov. Mills to propose a bill, which is becoming law in October, that removes legal barriers to abortion in later terms. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer

Margulies said that in states that don’t protect abortion access, “physicians could lose licenses or be prosecuted for making reasonable medical decisions.”

Abortions that occur later in pregnancy, at 20 weeks or later, are extremely rare. In 2022, only six of 2,225 abortions performed in Maine were done at 20 weeks or later. About 60% of abortions were medication abortions done early in pregnancy.

Maine passed a law this year that removed barriers for women who seek abortions later in pregnancy because of complications that developed or were discovered after 22 weeks.

Maine previously outlawed abortions after fetal viability, when a prematurely born baby could live outside the womb – typically considered to be 22 to 24 weeks.

Dana Peirce, of Yarmouth, had to travel to Colorado for an abortion in 2019 after a fatal abnormality was discovered in her fetus when she was 32 weeks pregnant. Peirce shared her story publicly, including publishing an op-ed in the Press Herald, which caught the attention of Gov. Janet Mills and inspired her to propose the law change.

The data released by Guttmacher doesn’t capture any possible changes since the law went into effect in October

While opponents of the law said Maine would become a destination for later-in-pregnancy abortions that are banned in most states, providers have said they don’t expect significant numbers of new patients given how few abortions are performed after viability. Abortions after 20 weeks are extremely rare and make up a small percentage of the overall number.