CLEVELAND — Pennsylvania saw the number of Ohioans seeking an abortion more than double in 2022, newly released data from the Pennsylvania Department of Health shows.
After serving 557 individuals in Ohio in 2021, the Keystone State performed 1,378 abortions for Ohioans in 2022, including six on girls under the age of 15.
Dr. David Burkons runs two clinics in Northeast Ohio: one in Shaker Heights and the other in Cuyahoga Falls, the closest clinics to the Pennsylvania border.
"A majority of [that increase] probably tried to call us or one of the other clinics in Ohio first," Dr. Burkons, who runs the Northeast Ohio's Women's Center, said. "We were having to refer these people to these other states and particularly in Pennsylvania, they were the two clinics that are in the Pittsburgh area, and they were just overwhelmed."
In addition, the data showed almost 40% of the abortions performed on Ohioans in Pennsylvania occurred eight weeks or less into the pregnancy.
The new data comes after the number of abortions in Ohio in 2022 was fewest performed since the state began tracking the data in 1976.
That decline comes as a result of Roe v Wade being overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in June of 2022. Ohio Republican lawmakers had passed a six-week abortion ban in 2019, which had no rape or incest exceptions. This law was blocked by a federal judge a few months later but was reinstated mere hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Pro-abortion rights groups sued, and months later, a state judge indefinitely blocked the law from going into place, citing infringement of privacy.
This past November, voters passed Issue 1 by 13 points, enshrining reproductive rights into the state constitution.
News 5 has been covering the abortion fight in Ohio extensively. Click or tap here to learn more.
These numbers out of Pennsylvania match what many already learned from other neighboring states.
While it’s not clear how many Ohioans in total traveled out of state during the ban, Michigan saw a 65% increase in abortions performed by those coming from out of state during that stretch, going from 1,665 procedures performed in 2021 to 2,761 in 2022. It's not clear which state those individuals came from.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
Remember the disputed-then-confirmed 10-year-old Ohio girl who traveled to Indiana after she was raped? She makes up one of the 611 individuals from Ohio in 2022 who made the trip across state lines into Indiana. In 2021, that number was only 40.
Burkons told News 5 he was looking at real estate just across the border in Pennsylvania during the ban.
"Abortion is something that you cannot get rid of," he said. "People are going to seek abortions all the time and one way or the other, whether it's legally or illegally, they're going to get it."
Austin Beigel runs End Abortion Ohio, a growing coalition of advocates dedicated to creating a total abortion ban. Beigel is part of the team helping push for a statewide ban and eventually a federal ban.
"We saw the storm brewing," he recalled about 2022. "We actually opposed the Dobbs U.S. Supreme Court decision. If you're going to overturn Roe v Wade, it needs to be done with personhood and equal protection for the pre-born human being. Don't just send it back to the states. You know, essentially it's gonna turn intothe wild west."
While Beigel and Burkons do not agree on the issue of abortion, they did come to the same conclusion from this data: that people will still seek out abortions whether or not they are legal. The two just differ in what to do about it.
"Unless it's explicitly illegal and considered a criminal act in your state, there's no risk for that person," Beigel said. "They've decided they want to do this action, they're gonna find a way to do it nine times out of ten."
Data previously provided by the Ohio Department of Health shows only 1,967 abortions occurred between June 24 and September 14, when the law was in effect. Of those, only 20 abortions occurred after being deemed a medical emergency.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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