A research released Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that one in three women of reproductive age in the United States live more than an hour from the nearest abortion facility. Prior to the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the average travel time to a clinic was less than thirty minutes.
The study, which appeared in the most recent issue of JAMA and was titled “Health Care Access and Reproductive Rights,” analyzed census data from roughly 64 million women aged 15 to 44 in 48 states, excluding Alaska and Hawaii. According to data, the average travel time for a woman seeking an abortion has more than tripled, and abortion seekers now travel more than 100 minutes to reach a legal facility.
Over a dozen states adopted whole or near-total abortion prohibitions in the three-month period between the Supreme Court’s ruling on June 24 and September 30, which the study’s authors dubbed the “post-Dobbs era.” The “pre-Dobbs” data was collected between January and December of 2021.
“Estimated travel time to abortion facilities in the United States was significantly greater in the post-Dobbs period after accounting for the closure of abortion facilities in states with total or 6-week abortion bans compared to the pre-Dobbs period, when all facilities providing abortions in 2021 were considered active,” the study’s authors wrote.
The statistics also revealed that women who lived more than an hour from an abortion facility were more likely to be uninsured, to lack a high school education, to have lower average salaries, and to be Black, Hispanic, or Native American. Despite the fact that this was true before to the Supreme Court’s judgment in Roe v. Wade, these discrepancies worsened following the decision.
The report, citing statistics from the Commonwealth Fund on maternal death in the U.S., stated, “These groups had historically worse pregnancy-related mortality outcomes than nonminority populations.”
Abortion access has not only become a contentious subject between Democrats and Republicans with only one week till Election Day, but it will also be on the ballot in five states. In three states — California, Michigan, and Vermont — voters will determine whether to safeguard abortion rights in their state constitutions, while in two other states — Kentucky and Montana — there will be measures to restrict abortions.
Inflation-related economic concerns have taken precedent over reproductive rights, according to a recent survey. President Biden has yet said that if Democrats gain seats in the midterm elections, the first bill he sends to Congress will codify Roe v. Wade and legalize abortion access nationwide.