Indiana abortions fell even before the ban went into effect
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Even before Indiana's near-total abortion ban took effect last month, the state already saw its number of abortions drop in 2023 compared to 2020.
Driving the news: In the first six months of 2023 Indiana saw about 3% fewer abortions than during the same period in 2020, according to new data from the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research and policy group.
- That amounts to a decrease of about 100 abortions, the institute estimates.
Flashback: Indiana's six abortion clinics stopped providing the procedure last month after the Indiana Supreme Court upheld the ban in a case based on privacy rights.
Details: The ban, passed in an August 2022 special session, includes exceptions in the cases of serious health risk to the mother and for a "lethal fetal anomaly" up to 20 weeks gestational age.
- It also allows exceptions for victims of rape and incest, but only up to 10 weeks.
The big picture: Nationally, states near those that banned abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned last summer have seen a sharp increase in the number of procedures performed. This is likely due to an influx of border-hopping patients, Axios' Adriel Bettelheim reports.
- Illinois, for example, saw a nearly 70% increase totaling about 18,300 abortions during the same time period Indiana saw a drop.
- Ohio and Michigan also saw slight increases.
What we're watching: A separate Marion County case that is challenging the abortion law on religious freedom grounds remains active.