The Guttmacher Institute has created an interactive map showing how far people may have to travel for an abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court significantly weakens or overturns landmark abortion case Roe vs. Wade. It’s pretty grim.
Working from an assumption that the 26 states considered most likely to ban abortions will do so if given half the chance, the Guttmacher Institute (a research and policy organisation campaigning for sexual and reproductive health and rights) modelled three possible scenarios: state bans on abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, bans after 15 weeks, and total bans of all abortions at any point in time. The Institute then looked at the states considered unlikely to ban abortions, and assessed how far people would have to drive to get to their closest one for access to nearest clinic.
For example, a total abortion ban in Florida may mean you’ll have to travel to North Carolina for the procedure, taking the the one-way trip from an average of 8 miles to 575 miles — an increase of 6,803 percent. Meanwhile, a 20-week ban would only increase the travel distance by 3,554 percent since people in Florida already have to go further on average for a later abortion. Yay.
Credit: SCREENSHOT: THE GUTTMACHER INSTITUTE
“If states are allowed to ban all or some abortions, then millions of women of reproductive age (more than 36 million) in 26 states may have to travel extraordinary distances to get to an abortion clinic,” said a Guttmacher Institute spokesperson in a statement to Mashable. (The Institute acknowledged that women aren’t the only people who seek abortions, however the terminology used reflects their data source — the U.S. census.) “And that’s not all — the data details how a few states we call ‘Destination States’ would suddenly have the nearest clinics for millions of patients who would have to travel hundreds of miles to reach them.”
On Nov. 1, the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments regarding Texas’ SB8 abortion ban, which prohibits the procedure after the sixth week of a pregnancy. On Dec. 1, the Supreme Court will consider a proposed Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. These are just two significant cases in a broader battle surrounding reproductive rights across the U.S., with many activists watching anxiously to see whether they’ll pry open the door to allowing individual states to ban abortions.
You can explore the Guttmacher Institute’s map — and donate to the fight for reproductive rights — on the organisation’s website.
