RALEIGH, N.C. — It's been over eight months since the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, giving the power to regulate abortions back to the states. As a result of this decision, state abortion laws since the ruling are all over the spectrum.
With many states enacting abortion restrictions or bans since the ruling, the states that still provide access to legal abortion have seen a predictable influx of people traveling from other states to access abortion services.
Findings from a study by the Society of Family Planning's #WeCount project show that, between April and August of 2022, North Carolina was the state with the highest increase in abortions, with a 37% increase.
The #WeCount project is a national effort to track and report changes in abortion access in the post-Roe climate.
This increase falls in line with predictions that North Carolina would become an abortion destination in the post-Roe environment
“Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, North Carolina has become an increasingly critical access point for people traveling for abortion care, including from neighboring South Carolina and Tennessee, where lawmakers in both states have swiftly banned most abortions," said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
On July 6, 2022, Gov. Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 263, an order that protects doctors and nurses that provide reproductive health care. The order goes beyond these protections to also protects against extradition efforts by other states for people traveling to North Carolina to access abortion services.
“The Supreme Court ripped away the constitutional right to reproductive freedom that women have relied on for five decades,” said Governor Cooper. “For now, it’s up to the states to determine whether women get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina they still can, thanks to my veto and enough legislative votes to sustain it."
