For many Americans, obtaining an abortion has become much more difficult since the cancellation of the Supreme Court Roe c. Wade In 2022. But even in the face of states imposing new restrictions and clinics that stop, the number of abortions continued to climb each year – until it seems, this one.
About 518,940 abortions were provided by clinicians in states without almost total abortion of abortion in the first six months of 2025 – a decrease of 5% compared to the same period in the previous year, according to new research published by the Guttmacher Institute, which studies and supports health and reproductive health rights. The number of people traveling through the state lines for an abortion during this period also dropped – by around 8% – comparable to the same period in 2024.
The new results mark a reversal of the trend observed in the previous research that the Guttmacher Institute published: previous data revealed that the number of abortions provided by clinicians in most of the United States increased by 11% in 2023, the year following the decision of the court,, Compared to 2020. In 2024, this number increased slightly – by less than 1% – appeared in the previous year. Travels outside the state that year, however, experienced a small decrease compared to 2023.
While the number of people traveling through the state lines for abortions continued to drop this year, this figure is always “significantly higher” than before Deer was overthrown,, The researchers noted.
Isabel Docampo, a main research partner in Guttmacher, who has worked on the new analysis, suggests that an explanation of the overall drop in group conclusions could be that the growing use of the shield on shield law means that more persons in states with almost total prohibitions can receive abortion pills in mail via Telehealth state.
Docampo told Time that researchers only analyze the abortions provided by clinicians in states without almost total prohibitions, so that Guttmacher estimates do not include abortion pills sent to states with almost total prohibitions within the framework of the laws of the shield or the self -managed abortions. This means, she says, that “we should not consider these estimates to reflect the tendencies of abortion nationally”.
On the contrary, Docampo says that the data “highlight that the laws on shielding, I think, are a critical option that people use”.
“This is an innovation of the last two years which, I think, have been incredibly important, and it is important that decision-makers and defenders continue to protect and widen these provisions because it is clear that they have been incredibly important for the landscape of access to abortion in the United States,” she continues.
Find out more: What are the laws on the abortion shield?
Another explanation of the trend could be the growing burden of traveling through the state lines to access care, which says Docampo indicates “the need for political decision -makers to tackle some of these financial strains”.
Docampo also stresses that there is a variation in data between states.
The decreases in the number of abortions provided were the most important in states that implemented an abortion prohibition after six weeks of pregnancy in 2024 and in states that bordered those who had almost total prohibitions. In Florida, for example, there were 27% of the less abortions provided by clinicians in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period of the previous year. Florida implemented a six -week ban in 2024; Before that, the state had a 15 -week ban.
Illinois, which, according to Docampo, is a major destination for people traveling other states to access abortion care, has experienced a significant drop in the number of travelers outside the state so far this year. And this drop represented almost three -quarters of the overall decrease in the number of abortions provided for in the state. “The drop in travel is the main source of the drop in workplaces in Illinois,” she said.
Meanwhile, in New York, the number of abortions provided by state clinicians decreased by around 5%, but the number of people traveling in the state to access care increased by around 51%. Docampo says it was probably because there were more people traveling from Florida to New York, given the new Restrictions from Florida to abortion.
Overall, however, Docampo affirms that research indicates an inverted trend compared to previous years, when the number of abortions provided was increasing.
Diana Greene Foster – A professor at the University of California in San Francisco who was not affiliated with the search for Guttmacher – that the apparent overall decrease in abortions provided so far could be due to people who have access to care under the shield laws, which the data does not capture. But she says that she fears that some people will not be able to access pills via shield laws or travel outside the state to obtain care.
“A decrease, for me, simply raises the concern that there could be people who want abortions that do not get them,” explains Foster. Foster led his own year -long research project that revealed that people who have been denied abortions have experienced less good economic and health results than those who had received care.
“My big concern is whether people who need to travel can travel,” she said. “We do not know of this data that they are not, but it is a worrying possibility.”
