The numbers paint a devastating picture of life after Roe
  June 24, 2023 Dearest readers, Today officially marks 365 days since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. We’ve spent this week sharing stories and conversations about the consequences of that decision, but, as they say, “the numbers never lie.” So for today’s newsletter, we turn to the numbers. The first one’s a big one: 25,640. That’s how many fewer abortions the Society of Family Planning says there were across the country in the nine-month period after the Dobbs decision compared to the nine months before. That’s an especially stark drop considering that it goes against what had been a multi-year trend: The number of abortions in the U.S. had been increasing since 2017. On its face, “25,000 fewer abortions” may sound like a positive statistic (or so the anti-abortion clique has trained us to think). But in reality, it means that over these last few months, roughly 25,000 people who needed a medical procedure were essentially told they couldn’t make that choice for themselves. It’s the same as if 25,000 people were denied a cancer screening because an unclear law made it impossible to obtain in their state. The greatest drops happened, unsurprisingly, in states with total abortion bans, where there were “65,920 fewer clinician-provided abortions than would have been expected,” the report found. This shocking decrease doesn’t mean people aren’t getting abortions, though; many traveled to other states, exhausting their personal resources to obtain care.  A WOMAN CRIES AT A VIGIL OUTSIDE THE SUPREME COURT DAYS AFTER THE DOBBS DECISION (PHOTO BY BRANDON BELL/GETTY IMAGES) And it isn’t just patients who’ve seen an upending of their lives since the Dobbs decision; many providers have had to close their doors. A New York Times report found that of the 61 clinics tracked by their reporters over the last year, 28 closed permanently. The building which once housed the clinic at the center of the Dobbs case, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is now a luxury consignment shop. And here’s a final figure for you: 229%—the increase in abortion providers being stalked in the months after Roe fell, according to the National Abortion Federation. Two. Hundred. Twenty. Nine! In any other line of work, such a drastic number would incur national outrage, and yet we’ve seen little done to protect providers. They’ve even become targets for harassment from their own governments—consider Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who was fined by the Indiana medical board after providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim who had traveled there from Ohio. There will be other numbers to track as the ripple effects of Dobbs become clear in the years to come. After all, a growing population exacerbates climate change. More children being born into poor or low-resource communities creates a greater need for government-funded safety nets—something conservatives aren’t willing to allocate funds to. When birthing people do not have basic human rights, every aspect of societal infrastructure suffers. And if everything you’ve read this week makes you feel hopeless, we’d urge you to think about one more number: 61%. That’s the percentage of Americans who support access to abortion. As Jessica Valenti reminded us on Tuesday, “We probably will win this, eventually. But in the meantime, a lot of people are going to be hurt.”  PROTESTORS GATHER EN MASSE IN DENVER, COLORADO THE DAY THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURNED ROE (PHOTO BY MICHAEL CIAGLO/GETTY IMAGES) While that may be a hard reality to face, it’s a common one in American history. We think of the work of people like Jose Jimenez and Denise Oliver— members of The Young Lords Party who fought for healthcare access for women and impoverished people in the 60s and 70s—and their victories reassure us that we will have our own. It’s just a matter of time. We keep fighting, The Meteor team  More reading on this Roe anniversary: My Pregnancy vs. The State of Texas: Amanda Zurawski’s story of developing sepsis after being denied abortion care It All Started in Pensacola: How the 1993 murder of Dr. David Gunn set off 30 years of anti-abortion violence “Your worst case scenario is something we would kill for”: Reproductive rights advocate Robin Marty on what states with abortion bans really need I Asked 61 Colleges if They Would Pay for Students to Travel for an Abortion. Only Five Hinted That They Might.: A soon-to-be college freshman surveys colleges across the country to find out which institutions would support their students in a post-Dobbs world What’s Next for the Abortion Pill?: A look into the right’s attempt to ban mifepristone—why they did it and what’s next An OB-GYN Meets with a Midwife: Dr. Heather Irobunda discusses reproductive care with Texas midwife Nikki McIver-Brown The First Week Without Roe: Dahlia Lithwick’s analysis of Dobbs is as relevant now as this time last year  FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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