After Dobbs, 42 Percent of Surveyed Abortion Providers in Abortion-Ban States Relocated

TUESDAY, June 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Following the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022) decision, 42 percent of surveyed clinicians who provided abortions in states banning abortion relocated to another state, almost all to states not banning abortion, according to a research letter published online June 11 in JAMA Network Open.

Dana Howard, Ph.D., from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus, and colleagues recruited clinicians who provided abortion the year before Dobbs and/or at the time of the survey to examine the proportion of abortion-providing clinicians who changed their primary state of practice.

The analytic sample included 305 respondents. The researchers found that 91 percent of respondents reported providing some nonabortion health care. Overall, 74 and 26 percent of participants practiced in no-ban states and ban states before Dobbs, respectively. Forty-seven respondents (16 percent) relocated their primary practice state; clinicians practicing in states that would ban abortion were much more likely to relocate than those in no-ban states (27 versus 20 respondents [42 versus 9 percent]). Most of those who relocated from ban states relocated to no-ban states (89 percent of 27 respondents). Most of those who relocated from no-ban states relocated to another no-ban state (90 percent of 20 respondents). Six percent of respondents stopped providing any abortion care after Dobbs.

“Given that most study respondents provided both abortion and nonabortion health care, these accelerated relocations have implications for abortion access and for the broader maternal health workforce, exacerbating health care deserts and outcome disparities,” the authors write.

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