Demand for abortions in NY rises in 2 years since Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, a New York organization that helps to fund the procedure has been busier.

The New York Abortion Access Fund's roughly five weekly volunteers have been fielding about 50 calls a week from people seeking to get the procedure. Staff members there then help women traverse the sometimes difficult process of paying for and ultimately getting an abortion.

"A large part of it is emotional support," said Chelsea Williams-Diggs, executive director of the fund. "Many people are scared or nervous or confused."

Most callers are New York residents, according to the fund, which started in 2001. Under 40% are coming from international places like the Dominican Republic and states like Florida, which has an abortion ban after six weeks. The average amount paid by the fund for each abortion is about $1,000. For an abortion with medication, a pregnant woman could pay up to roughly $800, according to Planned Parenthood. Other types of abortion, depending on where the woman is in her pregnancy, can be more costly.

Since the high court rolled back federal abortion protections by overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in 2022, the number of women getting abortions appears to have increased despite barriers such as cost and travel, some experts say. 

Nationally, more than a million abortions were estimated to have taken place within the health care system in 2023, the highest figure since 2012, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports abortion rights.

And between January and March of this year, roughly 31,000 abortions took place in New York, according to estimates from the Society of Family Planning, another organization that supports abortion. During those three months in 2023, that number was about 26,000.

Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there were about 614,383 legally induced abortions in 2022 — a 2% decrease from the previous year. However, that figure does not include data from several states, including California, Maryland and New Jersey. Still, New York saw an increase in abortions, moving from 63,487 in 2021 to 72,710 in 2022, the CDC said.

Abortion advocates, some physicians and researchers say the uptick is driven by factors that include New York's increased abortion protections — strengthened since the 2022 decision — people traveling to the state for care and telehealth. 

Dr. Alexandria Wells, clinical associate professor at Stony Brook Medicine who specializes in complex family planning, called abortion "essential health care." 

"No matter what the government decides to do or what limits they put in place, I think patients, abortion providers, and people that support abortion have taken it upon ourselves to continue to make abortion accessible," she said.

Rapidly changing national abortion landscape

Some anti-abortion groups have contested estimates showing a growing number of people are getting abortions, citing Texas’ rigid ban.

Erik Baptist, director of the Center for Life at the anti-abortion law firm Alliance Defending Freedom, said it is difficult to pinpoint how many women have had an abortion, noting that abortion medications can be purchased online.

"While other states have apparently seen abortion numbers rise — with some traveling out of state to get an abortion — it would be impossible to know exactly how many abortions have taken place over the last several years," Baptist said in a statement.

Since changes in the national abortion landscape, physicians and advocates say, women seeking to end their pregnancy on Long Island continue to face difficulties in traveling to an abortion appointment, paying for an abortion and doing so amid rigid work schedules. 

New York allows a person to get an abortion at up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, and after that, should the woman's health or the pregnancy be at risk, the state says. The CDC noted that nearly all — about 94% — of abortions in 2021 nationally happened at 13 weeks or earlier in pregnancy.

Recently, abortion protections in the state have grown stronger. In November, voters in New York approved the Equal Rights Amendment, a constitutional amendment that supporters say will include abortion protections. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, has signed several pieces of legislation that seek to protect reproductive rights, including a measure that bans state law enforcement from participating in prosecutions against providers who offer telehealth abortion services in places where the procedure is more limited.

Nearly 6,000 people traveled to New York to get abortion care in 2023, marking a roughly 7% increase over 2020, the Guttmacher Institute estimates. Most of those people came from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Texas.

Patients who are seeking an abortion on Long Island from out of state tend to be further along in their pregnancies and have more complex cases, physicians say. Many come to a particular clinic because they have family in the area who can help care for them.

Dr. Michael Nimaroff, senior vice president of OB/GYN services at Northwell Health, said the reasons people seek out abortions often do not align with commonly held perceptions. 

Earlier on in a pregnancy, most abortions are due to choice, he said. But later on, potential miscarriages and other medical needs are the dominant reasons.

"The vast majority of these [abortions] now were ... wanted pregnancies that had either significant fetal issues or a medical maternal condition," he said.

Northwell officials said the overall number of people who seek out abortion services has remained steady since before the Supreme Court's decision. Still, medical officials have also seen an uptick in people traveling to Long Island from other states.

Nimaroff said there are still gaps in receiving abortion care on Long Island.

"Our doctors and our patients who we care for in the system have access," he said. But across the region, he said it is a challenge. 

"There's certainly not an abundance of providers," he said. 

Increased need has impacted wait times

New York has 107 abortion clinics in 2024, up 3% from the previous year, according to the Guttmacher Institute. 

Planned Parenthood has several sites on Long Island, including those in Hempstead and Massapequa. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, which includes the Long Island sites, has seen a 50% increase in abortion cases, said the organization's president Wendy Stark.

"Some of the most critical barriers to abortion access are financial need, work schedules that don’t allow for sick time, language barriers, lack of transportation access, and bias in the health care system," Stark said in a statement.

At Stony Brook Medicine, Wells said the increased need for abortion in New York has caused wait times to be longer for both women who live in the area and those who travel.

The result, Wells said, is that a balance has to be struck on when patients get care. For instance, a person coming in from Florida may have a later gestational age and need to be seen earlier than a local resident who is earlier in their pregnancy. 

"And so a lot of the time it comes down to kind of, is there a time restriction for someone versus someone else?" she said.

Even for those who live on Long Island, travel can sometimes be a concern, Wells said. If a patient can't get an appointment at Planned Parenthood or another provider, they can find themselves having to travel long distances to New York City.

On top of that, she said, some people seeking abortions who live farther out on the East End might even find coming to Stony Brook to be prohibitive because of the travel distance.

But even when an abortion clinic is nearby, payment often becomes a top concern, said Williams-Diggs of the New York Abortion Access Fund.

She said women often encounter a clinic that won't take their insurance, or they simply can't pay for the procedure and have no insurance.

At least some of those people might reach out to the abortion fund. Once there, case managers help the women navigate health insurance, potential changes in appointments and questions, while offering emotional support.

Williams-Diggs said the need for this type of assistance existed long before the rollback of abortion protections and will continue as the abortion landscape shifts.

"People have always struggled to access abortion care, and there's always been a gap between a right and the ability to access it," Williams-Diggs said. "Now we are just navigating the landscape where there are less places where you have that right."

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Education: Howard University 

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith came to Newsday in 2023 after being a race and history reporter at USA TODAY, where she wrote enterprise and spot articles examining how the past shapes the present. Previously, she worked as the race and justice reporter at the USA TODAY Network of New York, covering issues such as criminal justice reform, housing, environmental justice, health care and politics. At The Journal News/lohud.com in Westchester County, she covered Yonkers, the state's third-largest city. She also worked at The Associated Press in Atlanta.

Honors and Awards: Criminal justice reporting fellowship with the National Press Foundation;  New York News Publishers Association award for distinguished investigative reporting;  Contributed reporting for Best of Gannett honor; Member of Table Stakes, a program funded by the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund and managed by the American Press Institute to transform local news.