Billmoyers.com: By the Numbers: Abortion in the US
Despite the passage of Roe v. Wade 44 years ago, there has been an unsettling number of abortion restrictions in the United States that show just how much we must keep fighting for affordable and accessible abortion care. There has been more than 1,140 abortion restrictions since Roe v. Wade, showing that despite abortion being perfectly safe and legal, lawmakers continue to attack women’s rights.
788
The number of abortion clinics across the US in 2014, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Just a few years earlier, in 2011, there were 851 abortion providers. The 7-percent drop is because of Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers, or “TRAP” laws, introduced in states by conservative politicians. By 2014, many states had only one abortion clinic, and many more states had only two or three, to serve enormous geographical areas.
11
According to The New York Times, at least 11 abortion providers have been murdered since 1993. The National Abortion Federation also reports that since 1977 there have also been “26 attempted murders, 42 bombings, 186 arsons and thousands of incidents of criminal activities directed at abortion providers.”
1,200,000
The number of women of reproductive age who live at least 45 miles from the nearest abortion provider.
90 percent
The percentage of all US counties that lacked an abortion clinic in 2014; 39 percent of women aged 15-44 lived in those counties.
