Center for American Progress

RELEASE: New CAP Analysis Shows Abortion Travel Times Increased 300 Percent Nationally After the Dobbs Decision
Press Release

RELEASE: New CAP Analysis Shows Abortion Travel Times Increased 300 Percent Nationally After the Dobbs Decision

Washington, D.C. — Nearly two years after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that eradicated the constitutional right to an abortion, the domino effect of abortion bans across states have happened at an alarming rate. These state abortion bans, including, most recently, Florida’s ban, have essentially cut off access to abortion care for women in the South and made it much harder for women to access abortion care. A new Center for American Progress analysis illustrates just how dramatically drive times to access abortion care have grown since the Dobbs decision by congressional district. 

Some key takeaways from the analysis include: 

  • Nationally, the average driving time across congressional districts for a woman who is at least six weeks pregnant to reach an abortion clinic increased by 300 percent—from 33 minutes to two hours and 12 minutes—in one direction.
  • Since Florida’s six-week abortion ban went into effect, the average driving time to a clinic went from 22 minutes to nine hours and eight minutes in one direction.
  • The top five states with the largest percentage change in driving times since the fall of Roe v. Wade are Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, and Georgia. One in 4 women of reproductive age live in one of these five states, and it would take them more than eight hours round trip to access abortion care.
  • Driving time to get to an abortion clinic for districts with high shares of Black or Hispanic women was more than 90 minutes longer than times for districts with lower shares of these populations. Specifically, Hispanic women were especially negatively affected by the Florida ban. 
  • Women in Republican-represented districts have more than double the travel time as women in Democrat-represented districts. Yet, since Dobbs, people in Democrat-represented districts have to travel nearly five times longer because of state bans, while people in Republican-represented districts travel nearly four times longer. 

“The Florida abortion ban has essentially removed the last remaining point of access to abortion care for women in the Southern United States. These blatant attacks on abortion access by extremist legislators and anti-abortion advocates are undermining women’s reproductive health and personal freedom. Their extremist agenda to ban abortion everywhere costs women of color and low-income women the most,” said Sara Estep, associate director of the Women’s Initiative at CAP and author of the analysis.

Read the column: “Abortion Access Mapped by Congressional District: 6-Week Abortion Ban Update” by Sara Estep 

For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Sarah Nadeau at [email protected].

This field is hidden when viewing the form

Default Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

Variable Opt Ins

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is hidden when viewing the form

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.