KENNEWICK — Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion, Washington remains one of 21 states where abortions are protected.
But the court’s decision is nevertheless shaking up abortion services in Washington state. For decades patients have come to Washington for abortions from other Northwest states, including those where rural residents might not have had access close by to abortion services. But since the 2022 Dobbs v.
Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the number of abortions performed in Washington has increased as more people from out-of-state seek services. And there is some data that shows it now takes longer on average to get an abortion in Washington. “Just because the state of Washington protects an abortion right, it doesn’t mean that we’re immune from the impacts of the Dobbs decision,” Sen.
Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said in a recent news conference on the second anniversary of the decision. The Guttmacher Institute released data in late May that looked at the change in travel patterns as the number of people traveling out of state for abortions nationwide doubled from 81,000 in 2020 to 166,000 in 2023.
“What’s striking about this new data is how often people are traveling across multiple state lines to access abortion care,” said Isaac Maddow-Zimet, a Guttmacher data scientist. The largest number of out-of-state patients came to Washington from not only nearby Oregon, Idaho and Alaska, but.
