Illinois abortions for out-of-state patients soar after Roe v Wade overtuned
Dr. Laura Laursen, an OB-GYN at Rush University Medical Center, has treated an influx of abortion patients since Roe v Wade was overturned and other states restricted access to the care.
Marc Monaghan/WBEZ
The number of patients coming to Illinois for abortions has soared since Roe v. Wade was overturned, according to new state figures.
Nearly 17,000 patients came to Illinois from other states for abortions in 2022 compared with about 11,300 out-of-state patients in 2021, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s annual abortion statistics report.
The surge in out-of-state patients led to over 56,000 abortion procedures in the state in 2022, the highest number of abortions in at least 25 years,
In 1996, about 3,900 people from outside of Illinois were among the 53,000 patients who terminated pregnancies in the state, the Public Health Department reported. That year, abortions for out-of-state patients made up about 7% of the total. In 2022, abortions for those who came to Illinois made up about 30%.
The number of Illinois residents who received abortions slightly decreased compared with 2021, from about 40,000 to nearly 39,000, the department reported,
After the elimination of the constitutional right to an abortion, the Department of Public Health stopped reporting abortion data for Illinois counties or which states patients traveled from.