The spike in abortions in Virginia, where abortion is easily obtainable, is believed to be largely driven by women from Florida, which implemented a six-week abortion ban in 2024.
(LifeSiteNews) -- A study released this month found that abortions in Virginia increased by 5,500 from 2023 to 2024, driven mostly by out-of-state women.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, Virginia’s number of abortions inflicted on the babies of out-of-state women increased by about 4,300 that year, likely due to many travelers from Florida.
“It is likely that Virginia absorbed [clients] affected by Florida’s six-week abortion ban after it went into effect in May 2024. Virginia is the second-closest state for Florida residents to seek an abortion after six weeks’ gestation (and the closest without a mandated waiting period),” noted the report.
The lack of a mandatory waiting period for an abortion in Virginia, in contrast to the 72-hour waiting period required for an abortion in its neighbor state North Carolina, may also make it a preferred option for women who would have otherwise traveled to Florida.
Abortion is legal until the third trimester in Virginia, where restrictions on the baby-killing practice are looser than that of a large swath of states to the south and west. In 2020, Governor Ralph Northam signed legislation repealing abortion regulations such as mandatory ultrasounds and counseling 24 hours before the lethal practice.
In 2024, the total number of abortions in the U.S. states without total bans remained relatively stable, increasing by less than one percent from 2023. Despite states’ total abortion bans implemented as a result of the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the 2022 decision Dobbs v. Jackson, abortions have allegedly been at their highest levels in over a decade, according to Guttmacher Institute.
This has been due in part to expanded access to the abortion pill, which accounts now for about two-thirds of abortions. Most recently, a 2020 “no-test” deregulation removed requirements for labs, testing, and blood work used to accurately date an unborn baby and rule out deadly ectopic pregnancies before dispensing abortion pills.
By December 2021, the Biden FDA axed the requirement that the abortion pill be dispensed in person and allowed them to be permanently shipped by mail.
