With Few Places Left, U.S. Abortion Patients Arrive for Care Later as Bans Spread

Developer: “Patients are reaching clinics “later and sicker” as legal barriers, insurance losses and rising costs delay care and narrow the number of providers. The Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision returned authority over abortion policy to the people and their elected representatives. Forty-one states now enforce abortion bans at some point in pregnancy, leaving patients to navigate a patchwork of total prohibitions, gestational limits and narrow exceptions. People seeking abortions may look for care in several states and encounter a gestational limit at each stop. Securing an appointment, arranging travel and finding the money can consume additional days or weeks. Patients who ultimately reach Maryland frequently arrive after the second trimester. The national network narrows sharply for those patients. All-trimester access for every patient is confined to clinics in four states and Washington, D.C. Maryland has no gestational-duration ban, and its constitution protects the right to reproductive freedom, including decisions to end a pregnancy…”