Thousands of women in the U.S. – including Idaho residents – have crossed state lines for an abortion in recent years as states have passed ever stricter laws and as the number of clinics has declined.
That’s according to an Associated Press analysis of data collected from state reports and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although abortion opponents say the laws are intended to reduce abortions and not send people to other states, at least 276,000 women in the U.S. terminated their pregnancies outside their home state between 2012 and 2017. Some 3,000 of those were Idaho women crossing state lines for procedures or medication-induced abortion.
Since 2000, the highest annual number of abortions in Idaho was 1,650 in 2009, with the lowest just topping 800 in 2000. In 2017, the most recent year available, Idaho reported 1,285 abortions.
While abortions across the U.S. are down, the share of women who had abortions out of state rose slightly, by half a percentage point over the six-year period. The share of Idahoan abortions done out of state rose slightly, from 28 percent in 2012 to 28.6 percent in 2017, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare.
Hundreds of Idahoans each year receive abortions in Washington, with others going to Oregon, Utah, and Montana, and several have traveled to Colorado and Nevada. Health insurance in Idaho doesn’t cover most abortions, which lessens the need for an Idaho woman to stay in-state for care.
Idaho law bans insurance plans from covering abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the woman’s life. All of Idaho’s neighboring states, except for Utah, either allow or require health plans to cover abortion. (AP, Idaho Statesman)
