Unborn babies in more than half the country could be spared from abortion depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court rules in an upcoming abortion case.
If the court overturns Roe v. Wade, a new interactive map by the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research group, estimates that 26 states likely will ban abortions.
“If states are allowed to ban all or some abortions, then millions of women of reproductive age (more than 36 million) in 26 states may have to travel extraordinary distances to get to an abortion clinic,” a Guttmacher spokesperson told Mashable.
The map divides states into three categories depending on what they likely would do if the Supreme Court restricts or repeals Roe and allows states to protect unborn babies again: states likely to ban abortions, states unlikely to do anything and “destination states” where abortion likely will remain legal.
Most of the states that likely would protect unborn babies by banning abortions are located in the South and Mid-West, while the states most likely to keep abortions legal are on the East and West Coasts, according to the analysis.
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“You’re talking about people in Texas and Mississippi traveling vast distances, not just trying to cross the border, but trying to go through multiple states in order to access [abortion],” Elizabeth Nash, principal policy associate for state issues at the Guttmacher Institute, told the Washington Post. “The distances will take you days to access an abortion and return home.”
Women in Mississippi who want to abort their unborn babies would have to travel an average of 495 miles one-way to an abortion facility. For women in Ohio, the average distance would be 186 miles while women in Louisiana would have to travel an average of 666 miles, according to the analysis.
Some may spend a huge chunk of money to travel for an abortion, but many mothers will choose life for their babies instead.
Nash told the Post that about 75 percent of women who get abortions are low income, meaning they may not be able to afford to travel for an abortion.
“By far, the most impacted by an abortion ban are not only low-income people, but people of color, young people and LGBTQ individuals because they have had the most burdens placed on them and the fewest resources with which to access health care,” Nash said. “You’re talking about a real failure.”
But these women are not without support. It is the abortion industry that is failing them by selling abortions rather than providing real medical care and resources to mothers and their babies. Meanwhile, pro-life advocates are expanding their outreach, providing much-needed financial and material support as well as encouragement to families in need.
For decades, the Supreme Court has forced states to legalize abortions for any reason up to viability and allowed abortions up to birth under Roe v. Wade. That could change with Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a Mississippi case scheduled before the court on Dec. 1 to consider if states may ban abortions before viability. Mississippi passed a 15-week abortion ban in 2018.
Though pro-abortion group are outraged at the prospect, polls consistently show that Americans support laws that protect unborn babies from abortions.
National polls by Marist and Gallup consistently find that a majority of Americans want all or most abortions to be illegal. A poll this year from AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that a strong majority of Americans believe states should be allowed to ban abortions after the first trimester, which is what the Mississippi law does. According to the poll, 65 percent said most or all second-trimester abortions should be illegal; the number increased to 80 percent in the third trimester.
Several recent polls also have found majority support for heartbeat laws that prohibit abortions once an unborn baby’s heartbeat is detectable, about six weeks of pregnancy.
Women do not need abortions to thrive. Tens of thousands of doctors confirm that abortions are not medical care, and women do not need to abort their own children to be healthy. What’s more, a study by pro-abortion researchers at the University of California San Francisco found that abortion-minded women who have their babies almost never regret not having the abortion.
Abortion activists are painting a dire picture of America post-Roe, but ending abortion would bring about a brighter future for millions of families and progress to a culture that recognizes the value of every human life.
