NC abortion providers brace for influx of patients from the South
By Rachel Crumpler
A six-week abortion ban taking effect today in Florida will usher in a significant shift in abortion access in the South. The new restrictions position North Carolina as one of the last places in the South that allows abortion past six weeks of pregnancy — a point at which many women do not yet know they are pregnant.
Florida’s four dozen-plus abortion clinics provided about 86,340 abortions up to 15 weeks gestation in 2023 — representing 1 in 12 abortions nationwide — according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, a national organization that tracks trends in reproductive health.
However, the number of abortions provided in the state will drop significantly with the new six-week restriction in place. By comparison, in the month after South Carolina implemented its six-week ban on Aug. 23, abortions dropped by about 71 percent and have remained at a reduced volume, according to data from Guttmacher.
Katherine Farris, medical director at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said people in states with bans do not stop needing abortion care; restrictions just push patients to travel out of state for care or go outside the medical system.
“Every time there’s a change, every time there’s a legal decision, every time there’s a new law, we have a whole ’nother bout of chaos,” Farris said.
North Carolina abortion providers are scrambling to accommodate the additional patients. But clinic capacity is already strained, with some patients needing to wait weeks before the next available appointment — a wait that could grow longer from the looming surge of patients.
North Carolina’s 14 abortion clinics provided an estimated 44,820 abortions last year — just over half the volume of Florida — according to Guttmacher data.
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