Abortions were up 37% in Mass. last year, driven by patients from other states

Massachusetts saw a substantial increase in abortions in 2023, the first full year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. According to state data obtained by WBUR, Massachusetts doctors and other health care providers facilitated 24,355 abortions last year, a 37% increase from 2022.

More than half of these procedures, 65%, occurred using pills that induce an abortion. Most of the change can be explained by a nearly seven-fold rise in patients from outside the state.

The numbers suggest abortion rights advocates were right when they predicted the court’s decision, which revoked a national right to abortion, would cause more people to seek care in Massachusetts if they lived in states where abortion became illegal. They also suggest the stakes could be high for patients anywhere in the U.S. should the rules around abortion care change when President-elect Donald Trump begins a second term.

The data, collected by the state Department of Public Health, shows 6,115 patients from elsewhere turned to Massachusetts to get an abortion in 2023, a sharp increase from 920 in 2022. Many of those patients live in regions the state classifies as mid-Atlantic, Plains, or Pacific (which includes Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and California).

But fewer than one in three out-of-state patients had to travel to Massachusetts. The rest obtained a prescription for abortion medications via telehealth.

Nearly two-thirds of all remote visits conducted by Massachusetts clinicians last year were for people outside the state. Most of these telehealth interactions were reported by Massachusetts-based practices or groups created after the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that let states restrict abortions. Some of the requests for abortion pills were filled by providers affiliated with national abortion-rights organizations.

Rules vary by state about whether doctors and other health care providers can prescribe medications to patients living in another state.

Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in Massachusetts, does not prescribe medications over telehealth to patients who live in other states. The organization reported significant increases in both in-person and telemedicine appointments last year. Dr. Luu Ireland, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said many of the traveling patients she sees are from Texas, Florida and Louisiana.

“You can place restrictions on abortion, but people still need the care,” Ireland said. “We hope to continue to remain a safe haven for these patients.”

Abortion rights opponents with Massachusetts Citizens for Life called the increase, driven by more abortion patients from out-of-state, devastating.

“We have so many elements of this commonwealth to be proud of and to boast about,” said the organization’s president and CEO Myrna Maloney Flynn. The idea that abortion is now a reason women travel to Massachusetts, "or at least it has been in the last year, is horrific,” she said.

Maloney Flynn said she’s also "disturbed" that 36% of abortions in Massachusetts were paid for by a public insurance program, often Medicaid. That’s not the case for the telehealth visits — most were paid for by patients. Abortion funds, created by individual donations, helped with expenses in 16% of abortions recorded in Massachusetts last year.

A debate about how to view these numbers comes amid speculation about how federal abortion policy may change under Trump in his second term.

Both sides of the abortion rights debate agree that it will remain legal in Massachusetts for now. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, after the election was called for Trump, Gov. Maura Healey promised to continue to protect reproductive rights.

A Republican administration could withhold federal funding to clinics or hospitals that provide abortions. Trump has said he’d consider restricting or banning access to the abortion pills that have been a preferred method for many women. But Trump has also said he would not try to claim that mailing these pills across state lines is illegal.

Abortion opponents want a Trump administration to protect pregnancy resource centers in Massachusetts. These are offices, sometimes registered clinics, that steer women away from having an abortion. Critics accuse the clinics of using deceptive tactics. Supporters say they have a right to present patients with an abortion alternative.

Sam Whiting, general counsel for Massachusetts Family Institute, said federal agents provide protections against vandalism or protesters for clinics that offer abortions, but they have not taken the same steps at facilities that do not offer abortions.

“There’s a federal law that the FBI is supposed to enforce,” he said “but unfortunately they just haven’t been enforcing that in Massachusetts or across the country.”

Abortion rights advocates are urging state lawmakers to enact abortion privacy protections. Carol Rose, executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts said the state needs a law that would ban the sale of cell phone data collected in the state so out-of-state abortion patients could not be traced to an abortion clinic.

“If a cell phone can be used as a tracking device, that’s incredibly scary and dangerous,” said Rose, ”whether it’s a bounty hunter from Texas that’s looking to see where someone goes or a federal agent.”

A bill that would enact a cell phone data sales ban was proposed during the current legislative session but did not pass.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect a revised report filed by the state and additional reporting by WBUR.