The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade one year ago this week.
Since then, out-of-state residents have been coming to New Hampshire to access reproductive healthcare that may be banned in their home states.
Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which serves New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, said they’ve seen a 12.5% increase in out- of- state residents seeking care at their facilities since Roe was overturned.
Kayla Montgomery, vice president of public policy in New Hampshire for the organization, said it’s not just people from states with abortion bans coming to New Hampshire. It’s also people seeking care from adjacent states where abortion protections have actually expanded. More out-of-staters are going there too, causing longer wait times, she said.
Montgomery said people are traveling to abortion-safe states like Massachusetts and New York, which all expanded abortion protections in 2022.
“People who are living in safe states, like, for instance, Massachusetts, are having a harder time getting appointments in their state. So that's why they're coming to us,” Montgomery said.
Most of the out-of-state patients at Planned Parenthood of Northern New England facilities last year came from Massachusetts.
Josie Pinto, the co-founder of Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire, an organization that helps pay for people’s abortions, says the organization has funded more than 260 abortions for residents of 32 different states in the past year.
“Our patient volume right now is higher than it's ever been,” Pinto said.
According to Pinto, the organization is reaching record funding numbers, leaving them with a budget of $20,000 a month.
“Unfortunately, sometimes not even that is enough to meet the full need of what's being requested of us,” Pinto said.
Pinto said the cost of travel and abortion procedures combined can be several thousand dollars.
