COVID-19 Restrictions Reduced Abortion Clinic Visits, Even in Blue States

Abstract

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, 33 states banned elective procedures, and 13 states used these bans to limit access to surgical abortions. We study the effects of these bans on visits to abortion clinics. Using a balanced panel of 757 abortion clinics, we find elective procedure bans lead to an 18% reduction in visits, and surgical abortion bans lead to a further 9% reduction, entirely from clinics that provided surgical abortions. These restrictions resulted in 18,000 fewer abortions in 2020 and 8400 additional births. These bans affected mobility to clinics in both traditionally “red” states and “blue” states.