Abortion travel becomes more expensive and difficult as states in the Mountain West enforce restrictions.

News brief

People in the rural Mountain West are used to traveling long distances for services — but for many seeking abortions, the distance is getting longer.

“Even someone who used to drive two hours for a dentist appointment, we’re now talking about … hundreds of miles away,” said Katrina Kimport, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco.

Kimport is operated by Raising new standards in reproductive health At UCSF, he interviewed hundreds of women who were considering abortion. These longer trips can mean spending more money on lodging and spending more time away from work, she said.

She added that once people make that decision, they want to have an abortion as soon as possible, but late flights are more expensive. Gas is more expensive now.

“They want to have a very short period of time between when they decide they want an abortion and when they can have an abortion, and what the trip does is extend that time,” she said.

But even people who don’t have to travel in many states are seeing an extension of that time because the places they go to, their local clinics, are now flooding out of state. Patients”

In the Mountain West, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Arizona are fighting court battles as the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June to enforce abortion bans. Some of Idaho’s abortion bans have gone into effect, though others remain in question. The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit State.

But when abortion providers close up shop, those seeking the procedure may head to neighboring states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico.

Travel costs will be a challenge for many, though. Research from The Guttmacher Institute In 2014, 75% of abortion seekers were low-income. Most of the study participants had children and had to pay for childcare when they missed work hours to travel long distances.

There are services available to help finance abortion travel, but Kimport said she doesn’t think there will be enough to meet demand.

Beyond money, she said, the increased travel takes an emotional toll, as people are often forced to move to unfamiliar cities without family and friends to support them. It also includes isolation.

“The idea that you have to travel suggests that there’s something to be ashamed of because it’s not in your area or the state you live in,” she says.

Kimport wrote about the costs of abortion travel The conversation.

This story was prepared by the Mountain West News Bureau, Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KINR in Nevada, the Rocky Mountain West O’Connor Center in Montana, KUNC in Colorado, KUNM in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations in the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau was provided in part by Corporation for public distribution.

Copyright 2022 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.