Less than 40 days out from the Dobbs decision of June 24, abortion clinics have taken a hit in post-Roe America. The overturning of Roe v. Wade ushered in a new era for the pro-life and pro-abortion movement alike, moving the battle over life from the federal level to the states.
According to a recent Guttmacher Institute report, 11 red states have taken swift action to protect unborn life. This has resulted in a mass halt in abortions. Seven states — Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas — now have restrictions protecting life from conception. The report states, “In 2020, these seven states accounted for 80,500 abortions, or an average of about 6,700 abortions each month.” Four states — Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee — will not provide abortions past six weeks of pregnancy. Prior to Dobbs, there were 71 clinics providing abortions cumulatively in these states. Since the SCOTUS ruling, this number has decreased by 60%, with only 28 clinics performing abortions.
“Abortion facilities being shut down is certainly good news for both mothers and babies,” Joy Stockbauer, a policy analyst for Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, told The Washington Stand. “We know that the abortion industry seeks out neighborhoods and communities of underprivileged Americans, including minority and impoverished populations, so removing abortion facilities is an important step to ending this discriminatory targeting.”
The decrease in abortion access hasn’t come without pushback from pro-abortion supporters. “Since Dobbs, the abortion industry has actively spread misinformation regarding medical treatment for ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage, and life-threatening pregnancy complications, purposefully creating confusion that puts the lives of women at risk,” Nichole Wilson, executive director of Charlotte Lozier Institute, told TWS. “Now that Big Abortion’s ability to profit has been limited in several states, we are seeing abortion centers closing their doors, despite the industry claiming for years that these facilities provided essential women’s health services.”
“Thankfully, women have better choices,” Wilson offered. “Charlotte Lozier Institute researchers have found that community-based health clinics and pro-life pregnancy centers outnumber Planned Parenthood 14 to 1. The pro-life movement has always been pro-woman.”
FRC’s Stockbauer agrees that pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) are the answer to the needs of women in unplanned pregnancies. “Almost 3,000 pregnancy resource centers across the nation stand ready to help mothers throughout pregnancy and beyond with free material resources, ultrasounds, and emotional support — all services that the abortion facilities closing down never provided.”
Several PRCs around the country have been targeted with attacks since the Dobbs decision, including Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center in Washington, D.C. Though abortions are still available through nine months in the District, Janet Durig, the center’s director, told TWS that she sees “hope increasing every day” in her job as they meet emotional and physical needs of mothers. She shared that recently, a teenage mother had come in to CHPC seeking help, and as she spoke with Durig, “She learned that we would be able to meet material needs and emotional needs, not only because we would always be a good resource for answering any questions that she may have, but also a support system to just be encouraging to her as she grows in motherhood. And so she left here feeling energized and excited … it lifted her burden.”
Marjorie Jackson formerly served as a reporter for The Washington Stand.