New data suggests that patients in states with total abortion bans are increasingly turning to telehealth and away from out-of-state travel for abortion care.
A Guttmacher Institute report, published March 24, 2026, estimated the total number of clinician-provided abortions and incidence of cross-state travel for abortion care in 2025. Researchers found that in the 13 states with total abortion bans—which include Alabama, Idaho, and Texas—telehealth abortions increased from 72,000 in 2024 to 91,000 in 2025.
Meanwhile, fewer people crossed state lines to obtain abortion care, from approximately 74,000 in 2024 to 62,000 in 2025.
The estimated total number of abortions provided by clinicians in 2025—1,126,000—remained largely unchanged from 2024, when an estimated 1,124,000 abortions were performed.
“These data underscore what abortion advocates around the world have been saying for decades: Abortion bans and restrictions don’t stop people from needing and having abortions,” Kimya Forouzan, principal state policy adviser at Guttmacher Institute, said in an email to Rewire News Group.
The Guttmacher report noted that its estimates likely undercount the total number of abortions provided last year, as they exclude abortion pills obtained in advance of a pregnancy, the limited number of abortions still provided under exceptions to total bans, and abortions that were not provided by U.S. health-care professionals.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, revoking federal abortion protections, 13 states have instituted total abortion bans. Another six have implemented bans on abortion care between six and 12 weeks. Still, many residents living under abortion bans have been able to receive abortion pills from clinicians located in pro-choice states thanks to protective shield laws, which allow providers to offer reproductive and gender-affirming care to patients through telehealth and by mail in states with restrictions.
Eight states—California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington—have extended these “shield law” protections to providers who prescribe medication abortion to patients remotely, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Anticipating the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe, Connecticut became the first state to pass “shield” legislation in May 2022.
The FDA finalized a rule allowing prescription of the drug mifepristone, one of the medications used for abortion, without an in-person appointment in 2023, increasing access across the country.
“Telehealth is not a workaround,” Dr. Amy Potter, chief medical officer at telehealth medication abortion provider Hey Jane, told RNG in an email. “It’s an established model of care, and patients are choosing it because it works.”
Since its founding in 2021, Hey Jane—one of a number of online women’s health companies that exploded in popularity after Roe was overturned—says it has cared for more than 100,000 patients across 23 states, albeit none with total bans. For many of those recipients, however, “telemedicine was not just a preference but often the most accessible way to get care,” Potter said.
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Although telehealth abortions are increasingly becoming the primary way that residents of total-ban states get care—one in four abortions across the U.S. are facilitated via telehealth, Potter said—travel across state lines for in-person treatment is still more than double what it was prior to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision reversing Roe. From 2013 to 2020, between 19,000 and 25,000 abortions were sought out of state on an annual basis, according to the Guttmacher report.
In-person treatment is typically pursued by patients who are further along in their pregnancies—medication abortion pills are generally effective within the first 10 weeks—or for those who want a procedural abortion. Federal and state lawmakers are targeting the shield laws that protect out-of-state telehealth care, with the intention of criminalizing providers and, in some cases, their patients.
“It’s important to note that none of the attacks against shield law provision or abortion via telehealth have been successful, a testament to the strength and legitimacy of these laws,” Fourozan said. “However, we know how relentless and cruel the anti-abortion movement can be, so it’s important to closely monitor these threats and take them seriously.”
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