In one month, 43 US clinics have stopped offering abortions: study

At least 43 clinics throughout the United States have stopped offering abortions since the Supreme Court rolled back the nationwide right to the procedure, according to a study published Thursday.

In the month since the landmark June 24 ruling, 11 states have banned abortions either after six weeks of pregnancy or altogether, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion access.

As a result, 43 clinics—including 23 in Texas alone, five in Oklahoma and five in Alabama—have closed or refocused their resources on other forms of care, by the institute's count.

The Jackson Women's Health Organization, also known as the Pink House—which was at the heart of the Supreme Court case—closed on July 7 after long being the only location providing abortions in the state of Mississippi.

"The already dire state of abortion access in many parts of the country will continue to deteriorate and more states will adopt abortion bans in the coming weeks and months," the study authors wrote.

Some states, such as Louisiana or North Dakota, have laws banning abortion, but legal battles have slowed the enactment of those new rules.

Others, such as Indiana, have called special state congressional sessions to pass new legislation.

Half of all US states, particularly in the largely conservative South and Midwest, are expected to eventually ban abortions.

© 2022 AFP