Abortion on rise in Montana due to out-of-state patients

BOZEMAN, Mont. (KECI) — Some states have experienced increases in abortion as others have banned it.

Montana has seen a 22% rise in abortions during the first six months of 2023 over a comparable period in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Mary Sullivan, a representative for Planned Parenthood of Montana, confirmed that the amount of patients seeking abortion care from clinics in the state has gone up.

We’ve definitely seen an increase in patients’ volumes over the last year and as abortion bans and restrictions have gone into effect around the country,” said Sullivan.

The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, leaving it up to each individual state to decide whether to implement more restrictive laws or to ban abortion altogether.

Right now, abortion care is illegal in 14 states: Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia.

It’s heavily restricted in seven others: Utah, Arizona, Nebraska, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

In Montana, the state constitution protects a resident’s right to privacy, which includes the right to procreative autonomy, keeping abortion legal.

In neighboring states it’s a different story, and it’s forcing patients who need care to cross state lines to get it. Sullivan said this is something Planned Parenthood has seen play out in their clinics in Montana.

“We’ve had patients from faraway states like Texas, of course, from neighboring states that have bans or restrictions, the Dakotas, Idaho, Wyoming,” she said.

According to local clinics, it’s this influx of out-of state patients that’s behind the uptick in Montana’s abortion numbers.

For those affected by bans and restrictions, getting care has become less accessible. KECI spoke with Kate Kujawa on the board of the Montana Abortion Access Program to find out how things are playing out in the Mountain West.

“I feel our responsibility to people, especially in states with restrictions, is really in meeting them where they need the most support,” Kujawa said.

The average patient who receives support from the Montana Abortion Access Program travels at least 445 miles roundtrip to get care, many of them more.

Kujawa said the support the program provides could be financial, emotional or a combination of both. While the need for support has risen, Kujawa says the issue of accessibility is not new.

Abortion healthcare has never been accessible for everyone, and so this is really just shining a light on a problem that has been going on since the very beginning,” said Kujawa. “With all of these laws, with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, this has really opened the door for a lot of people to realize the inequities that have been going on for decades.”

Abortion remains legal in Montana for now, as the Montana Supreme Court has consistently upheld its protection under the state’s constitution.

But it has not gone untested. Republican lawmakers have attempted to further restrict Montanan’s access to care, passing five laws last May that banned surgical abortion, required ultrasounds, and prohibited the funding of care with Medicare among other restrictions.

Four of the five bills were immediately blocked from going into effect shortly after being signed. The fifth, House Bill 937, which requires abortion clinics to be licensed by the state, was temporarily blocked from going into effect last month.