Abortion Bans Cost the U.S. Over $1 Billion
6.23.25
Click to skip ahead: First and foremost—Welcome, Kylie! Stats & Studies has the latest abortion numbers from #WeCount, and a new report shows that the end of Roe cost the U.S. over $133 billion. In the States, news from Texas, Illinois, Iowa, California, and more. Anti-Abortion Strategy has the story of a Republican lawmaker who couldn’t get care for her ectopic pregnancy—and blames pro-choicers. In the Nation, a few quick hits.
Welcome, Kylie!
You may notice a new byline on today’s newsletter—that’s because Abortion, Every Day’s first-ever reporter, Kylie Cheung, started today. I couldn’t be more thrilled, and I know you all are going to love and appreciate her work.
Learn more about Kylie here, welcome her in the comments section, and consider joining tomorrow’s live-chat with us both at 2pm EST.
Stats & Studies
Mother Jones reports today that the end of Roe has cost the U.S. more than $133 billion annually.
That staggering number—larger than the GDP of some nations—comes from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), which looked at 16 states with total or near-total abortion bans over the past three years.
Frankly, this should surprise absolutely no one. Over the last couple years, we’ve seen studies and surveys showing that large swaths of the labor force refuse to work in states that ban abortion, residents of abortion-banned states are moving away in droves, and prospective college students aren’t even applying to college in abortion-banned states.
Turns out, there are severe economic consequences to disenfranchising and driving out half of your state’s population—who would’ve thought?!
Back in 2021, IWPR determined that state-level abortion restrictions cost the U.S. economy $105 billion per year. As anyone could have guessed, Dobbs has already made things much, much worse.
While abortion bans are costing states billions, what they’re not doing is reducing the number of abortions. According to the latest data from #WeCount, abortions actually increased in the two years after Roe was overturned.
The #WeCount survey, a project of the Society of Family Planning, counted 1.1 million abortions in the U.S. last year. That’s an average of 95,000 abortions monthly, up from 88k per month in 2023 and 80k the year previous. (These numbers also mirror what the Guttmacher Institute found a few months ago.)
You can probably guess the driving force: telemedicine access to medication abortion. In the final months before Roe was overturned, about one in 20 abortions were facilitated via telehealth. In the last three months of 2024, that number was 1 in 4.
None of this minimizes the massive—sometimes insurmountable—barriers abortion bans have created: #WeCount found that some states with bans reported zero abortions in some months of 2024. But one thing’s clear: Access to abortion pills mailed across state lines is a lifeline.
That’s exactly why anti-abortion lawmakers have their sights set on abortion pills—between a barrage of bills cracking down on telemedicine abortion access, attacks on the shield laws that allow providers in pro-choice states to ship the medication, and the criminalization of providers themselves.
Remember, New York provider Maggie Carpenter has been targeted with a civil suit from Texas, and indicted on criminal charges in Louisiana for allegedly shipping pills into the state. The idea is to make an example out of the blue state doctor, and push a case over the interstate battle all the way to SCOTUS.
In the States
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed two vile anti-abortion bills at the end of last week—including one that Republicans want us to believe actually protects women. That’s right, it’s the “Life of the Mother” bill, which Abortion, Every Day outed as Trojan Horse legislation back in March.
As a refresher, the bill claimed to “clarify” when providers are permitted to perform emergency abortions—positioned as a bipartisan effort to save women’s lives. In reality, it was crafted by the state’s leading anti-abortion activists to revive a century-old abortion ban that would allow for the prosecution of patients and anyone who helped them.
The fact that it was introduced by Texas Sen. Bryan Hughes—who wants the state’s wastewater facilities to be tested for abortion pills and birth control—should tell you all you need to know.
Thankfully, the bill’s language reviving the 1925 ban was changed after an outcry from state abortion funds and activists (and AED’s coverage).
While the current iteration of the now-law slightly updates Texas’ ban by striking out the words “life-threatening,” it still requires emergency situations to “place the female at risk of death” in order for a patient to qualify for care. In other words…there’s no real change—with doctors who violate the law still subject to life in prison, a $100,000 fine, and termination of their medical license.
What’s more: the law mandates that doctors take a continuing education class that Republicans say will help them understand the state’s ban and when they can provide care. The truth? It’s yet another way to empower anti-abortion groups: when South Dakota passed a similar requirement, the state health department enlisted the help of the the American Association of Pro-Life OBGYNs (AAPLOG) to create an informational video and resources for doctors.
This is a group that opposes life-saving abortions, now responsible for telling doctors when and how they should provide life-saving care. What could go wrong!
That law and the one in Texas are part of a broader legislative trend pushing so-called Med-Ed bills:
Abbott also signed a bill to prohibit city councils from helping abortion patients in any way—even tangentially. The law was passed in response to local governments using city funds to reduce the harm of the state’s ban, like an abortion travel fund created by San Antonio’s city council.
The money wouldn’t have gone towards the abortion procedure itself—but to help cover travel costs for patients leaving the state. The new law, however, bans public funds from going to any “abortion assistance entity”—including help for child care, travel, lodging, or other “logistical support” for patients.
This comes just as Texas' 15th Court of Appeals issued a temporary order for San Antonio to pause their travel fund. In a statement celebrating that ruling, state Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “Forcing Texas taxpayers to subsidize abortion tourism is a profound insult to our state’s pro-life values and our laws protecting the unborn.”
As you know, ‘abortion tourism’ has increasingly become the anti-abortion movement’s boogeyman du jour. The term is meant to frame abortion-related travel as something as frivolous as a weekend trip to a luxury spa—rather than a costly, highly disruptive necessity that’s a direct consequence of the state’s ban.
That means today would be a great day to rush a donation to a Texas-based abortion fund.
Speaking of ‘abortion tourism’—anti-abortion activists are furious about a new all-trimester clinic in Illinois, saying it will make the state “the abortion capital of the United States.”
The Hope Clinic is a longtime provider in the state, but has opened another location to offer expanded care up until 34 weeks of pregnancy. Illinois allows abortion until ‘viability’, with exceptions for fatal fetal abnormalities, or to protect the health or life of a pregnant person.
Hope Clinic’s chief medical officer Dr. Erin King says, “we want to provide access to as many people as we can within the law.”
If you can stomach the quotes from anti-abortion activists, the Chicago Tribune delves a bit into the nuances around ‘viability’ and the stigma attached to abortion later in pregnancy. I especially appreciated this quote from Sarah Garza Resnick, president of the abortion rights group, Personal PAC:
“At no point in any pregnancy does the government know more about my body than me or my doctor.”
Damn straight. For more about later abortion care and the consequences of ‘viability’ standards, consider watching AED’s conversation with Dr. Shelley Sella—the first woman to openly practice third-trimester abortion care in the U.S, and the author of Beyond Limits: Stories of Third-Trimester Abortion Care:
Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists in Iowa celebrated one cursed year of the state’s disastrous six-week ban, with at least one leader pledging that the state will address (that is: ban) “chemical abortions” in the next legislative session.
That bill is being called… the “Black Market Abortion Prevention Act.” Like so many other anti-abortion medication efforts, the idea is to make self-managed abortions seem as scary and dangerous as possible.
Because we know they’re anything but, a reminder that you can access abortion medication even if you’re not currently seeking an abortion—but want to have the pills on hand just in case: Aid Access, Plan C Pills, Abortion Finder, I Need An A.
Finally, something to keep an eye on in California: With representation from the anti-abortion extremist organization the Thomas More Society, a San Diego-based anti-abortion activist is invoking the First Amendment to sue for his right to continue harassing abortion clinics in his community.
We’re likely to see more and more so-called “free speech” suits like this amid the Trump administration’s sweeping moves to embolden anti-abortion activists to terrorize clinics.
Quick hits:
NPR looks at how anti-abortion extremism can shed light on the shootings in Minnesota.
The Hill reports that the Maine Democratic Party has launched a website attacking Republican Sen. Susan Collins for her votes that helped stack the Supreme Court with conservative justices and overturn Roe.
Finally, a cute little update in the Arkansas GOP’s comically sisyphean struggle to build a crude anti-abortion monument at the state Capitol: The monument might never actually be built. Yay!
“Students, mothers, and young professionals—’ordinary women’, as they describe themselves—came together, helping others access clandestine abortions. They risked prison as they negotiated prices with doctors willing to perform the procedures—and some even learned to do them themselves.
‘It was just unbelievable that this would occur in this time and era, that we would go back to something this devastating,’ says ex-Jane, Sakinah Ahad Shannon, her voice breaking with emotion.”
- Agence France-Presse, interviewing members of the once-underground Jane Collective on the three year anniversary of Dobbs
Anti-Abortion Strategy
This is rich: A Republican lawmaker from Florida who was unable to get emergency abortion care is blaming…pro-choicers.
U.S. Rep. Kat Cammack told the Wall Street Journal that when she had an ectopic pregnancy in 2024, the hospital initially hesitated to offer methotrexate to end the pregnancy. You see, Florida’s six-week ban had just taken effect.
Yet, Cammack didn’t blame Florida’s law—she blamed abortion rights advocates, claiming their “absolute fearmongering” made the doctors too afraid to offer her the medication.
Cammack’s accusation that pro-choicers sowed confusion about abortion ban exceptions is telling. First, because she claims, “what I went through wasn’t an abortion.” The idea that some abortions aren’t really abortions is classic conservative spin—meant to separate “good” abortions from “bad” by defining abortion as an intention.
She’s also adopting the exact messaging anti-abortion groups have been pushing since the end of Roe: that abortion bans don’t hurt women, pro-choicers do. In fact, conservatives started preemptively blaming doctors and abortion rights advocates before we heard the worst horror stories.
Once women started dying, that blame only got worse. When faced with a lawsuit from over a dozen women who were denied timely emergency abortion care, for example, Texas denied any culpability—claiming instead that their laws were being willfully misinterpreted by irresponsible doctors.
And when ProPublica published the stories of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller—both killed by Georgia’s abortion ban—Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America launched a half-million-dollar ad campaign using the women’s names and likenesses, stating: “Candi and Amber should be alive. The Left’s scare tactics are deadly.”
Let’s state the obvious: When people are denied abortion care, the blame lies with abortion bans, their exceptions that are deliberately too ambiguous to be applicable, and their threats of prison time, massive fines, and loss of medical license to health care workers. Not the people raising the alarm about how dangerous they are.
Unfortunately, mainstream coverage of Cammack’s story is largely parroting out her (wrong) framing. Here’s a sampling of today’s headlines: “Republican Says Abortion Law Fear Delayed Her Care for Ectopic Pregnancy,” “Republican lawmaker with ectopic pregnancy nearly died amid new Florida abortion laws—but blames the left,” “Kat Cammack blames Democrats for healthcare workers’ unease over ending her ectopic pregnancy.”
In the Nation
The 19th on the states passing laws that allow doctors to keep their names off abortion pill prescription labels;
Democratic attorneys general in states like California, Massachusetts, and New York are calling on medical professionals across the country to stand up for their patients’ reproductive rights, including rights to medication abortion, emergency abortion care, and interstate abortion travel.
Olivia Rodrigo shared Adriana Smith’s story over the weekend: “So disgusting and so disturbing. Adriana Smith deserved better.”
And an interview with UC Berkley law professor Khiara Bridges about the legal and ethical questions surrounding Adriana Smith.
I live in Illinois and I’m happy for it to be the abortion capital of the United States. We’re treating people who need to be treated. Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
I hope Rep. Kat Cammack cries herself to sleep many of nights. No matter what she says publicly, she’s shaking in those boots deep down. Lucky for her she’s privileged.